Today in Keys History – April 22, 2024
1898 – The Navy was ordered to blockade the coast of Cuba. The USS Nashville about 12 miles south of Sand Key took the Spanish steamer Buena Ventura as the first prize in the Spanish-American War.
1953 – The crew filming the movie “Beneath The 12 Mile Reef” arrived and took over the Casa Marina Hotel. The movie starred Terry Moore, Robert Wagner, Gilbert Roland and J. Carroll Nash, who arrived with the rest of the crew. Seventy-five locals were used as extras in the film.
1972 – The old Monroe General Hospital on Stock Island was being converted to offices for use by the expanding Monroe County government.
1984 – World-renowned conductor, composer, and musician Leonard Bernstein left Key West after having spent many weeks on the island. His stay was purely for pleasure. “I didn’t work at all. I came down to relax,” he said.
1994 – The official territorial boundaries of the Conch Republic were extended to Key Largo when Monroe County commissioners unanimously agreed that Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow spoke for all of the Florida Keys in the secession of April 1982.
2009 – The 522-foot ship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg arrived in Key West and was docked at the Truman Waterfront where it would undergo final preparations before being sunk as an artificial reef.
2019 – Over the preceding month, a multi-partner effort planted 3,200 small staghorn corals on the Florida Reef. The genetically diverse transplants had been nurtured at the Coral Reef Foundation’s Upper Keys nursery.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A postcard of the Monroe County Hospital on Stock Island ca. 1950. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.