1863 – The USS San Jacinto of Key West’s East Gulf Blockading Squadron captured the steamer Lizzie Davis while it was sailing from Havana to Mobile “loaded with lead and other articles for the rebel authorities.”
1897 – John J. Philbrick died at age 57. He was from Keene, NH, and came to Key West in the Navy during the Civil War. At the time of his death he was president of Key West Street Car Company and the Key West Gas and Electric Light Company.
1909 – Workers laying pipe for Naval Station Key West uncovered the well-preserved skeleton of an adult human along Front Street near the intersection of Eaton.
1922 – Monroe County Sheriff Roland Curry had a violent confrontation with booze smugglers at Stock Island. Curry had been alerted that illegal liquor was to be landed there and laid in wait for it. When the cargo came in, he approached. The smugglers opened fire; Curry answered, but his gun jammed. The booze runners escaped, but they dropped 45 sacks of beer and 50 demijohns of liquor.
1923 – The new Monroe County High School on White Street was dedicated before a large crowd in the auditorium. The main speaker was Dr. William R. Warren. Superintendent of Public Instruction Virgil S. Lowe and Contractor B.A. Johnson gave short addresses.
1927 – Cuba was investing millions of dollars in highway construction, as they were expecting a surge of automobile traffic from the U.S. once the Overseas Highway was completed and connected Key West to the mainland.
1930 – Mary Harvey Lake died at age 78. In 1917, when the Key West Library was about to close for the lack of funds, she took charge and for the next 10 years ran it without compensation, attending to her duties from early morning to late night.
1933 – It was announced from Washington, DC, that the Post Office on Pigeon Key would be closed.
1955 – Federal Judge Emett C. Choate ruled that crews of the Cuban Airline DC-4 and Navy training jet plane were both at fault in the air crash off Key West’s South Beach in 1951 in which 43 persons died.
1957 – The Key West City Commission approved a lease with the Charter Boatmen’s Association for the use of Garrison Bight alongside North Roosevelt Boulevard. The 20-year lease required boatmen to provide the docking facilities and to pay $25 a year for each dock.
1994 – Former Key West Mayor Richard Heyman died at age 59. He had served two terms, from 1983- 85 and 1987-89.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The USS San Jacinto in Key West during the Civil War. The photo was purchased by Frank Adams in January 1865 with a note on the back that this ship had wrecked in the Bahamas. Scott De Wolfe Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.