1828 – The French ship Mercure wrecked on Carysfort Reef and was a total loss. Part of the cargo, sails, rigging, and crew were saved by wreckers.
1834 – The brig Sea Flower, sailing from Maine to New Orleans, went ashore at the Dry Tortugas. It was refloated by throwing off 96 barrels of lime, and wreckers towed it to Key West in a leaky condition.
1836 – The ship America, sailing from New York to Mobile, wrecked at the Dry Tortugas. The vessel was a total loss. The passengers were rescued and taken to Pensacola and New York.
1848 – In the U.S. presidential election, Key West gave 86 votes for Democrat Lewis Cass and 63 votes for Whig candidate Zachary Taylor.
1898 – A Catholic missionary in Key West wrote, “There is not a town in the South where there have been so many apostasies.”
1924 – The arrival of 120 passengers into Key West via the Florida East Coast Railway’s morning train heralded an early start to the tourist season.
1939 – George H. Bliss of New Hampshire was the new owner of the Pirate’s Cove Fish Camp on Sugarloaf Key and was preparing the property for the upcoming tourist season.
1983 – Jennie Bethel DeBoer died at the age of 97. She grew up at the Key West Lighthouse where her father, William Bethel, was keeper for 25 years. During World War I she served as a Yeomanette in the Navy. After the war, she worked for the Key West Citizen for 35 years.
1989 – Captain Tony Tarracino was elected Mayor of Key West and Sally Lewis was re-elected to the commission.
1998 – Tropical Storm Mitch generated multiple tornadoes that damaged 230 mobile homes on Key Largo between mile markers 102 and 106.
2008 – The bankrupt Indigo Bay condominium development on Upper Matecumbe Key was put up for auction, but there were no bidders. Instead, it sold for a cut-rate $8 million to a pre-arranged buyer.
2010 – A teenager who broke into a home on Sugarloaf Key was easily apprehended because he left a computer inside logged onto his MySpace account.
Information compiled by the late Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Jennie Bethel deBoer at the Key West Lighthouse C 1910. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.