1825 – The brig Hercules from Mobile was floated off the reef at Key Largo and taken to Key West. The wreckers were awarded a salvage fee of 31½ percent on a vessel insured for $200,000.
1844 – A hurricane lasting 18 hours struck most of the Florida Keys, causing considerable damage. At Key West it was said, “…at its height, houses, fences, trees, and vessels were borne before its almost resistless might.”
1907 – The Key West Board of Aldermen met and raised the mayor’s salary to $1,200 per year. They also ruled that saloons could not be established within 400 feet of a church or school.
1932 – Eighty needy children at the Harris School were being served every day with soup provided by the Parent-Teacher Association.
1954 – The Navy’s first Underwater Swimmers School was commissioned in Building 107 on the Naval Station with Lt. R.J. Fay as commanding officer.
1960 – Key West Mayor Delio Cobo and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce returned from a trip to New York and Chicago to combat adverse publicity about the Keys resulting from Hurricane Donna. They appeared on national television programs and spoke to newspaper reporters.
1988 – Voters denied the city of Key West authority to issue bonds to buy the Salt Pond tract that now has the Ocean Walk Apartments and Las Salinas Condominiums.
2014 – The CVS drugstore chain announced plans to take over a large, vacant concrete building at the corner of Duval and Front streets in Key West.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Hilary Crusoe (second from left) at Navy Underwater Swimmers School. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.