Today in Keys History – May 27, 2023
1898 – Sgt. Charles W. Richards, Battery B, 1st Artillery, was on night watch at Fort Taylor when he discovered that three men had breached the fort and were tampering with the mortar battery. Richards ordered the men to put their hands up, but they promptly opened fire and wounded him. He returned fire, but the men escaped.
1905 – Monroe County Sheriff Frank Knight took Simon Reyes to the State Prison. Reyes was found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend and was sentenced to hang, but the Governor commuted his sentence to life.
1923 – A seaplane plunged from an altitude of 500 feet into the water about a quarter mile off Key West’s South Beach. The pilot, Frank G. Flag, was injured about the face and head but managed to swim out from under the wrecked plane. He was rescued by a nearby boater.
1926 – Governor John W. Martin announced that Chief of Police Cleveland Niles was appointed sheriff of Monroe County to fill the unexpired term of the late sheriff Roland Curry, who had died from injuries sustained in a boating accident. Mayor Leslie Curry appointed Ivan Elwood to replace Chief Niles.
1937 – Governor Fred Cone appointed State Senator Arthur Gomez to fill the unexpired term of the late Jefferson B. Browne as circuit judge for the 11th judicial circuit.
1941 – At the urging of Key West representative Bernie C. Papy, the Florida House included $50,000 in its general appropriations bill for the study and protection of sponges. Papy strongly opposed a bill allowing spongers with diving equipment to work within 10 ½ miles of Key West. Papy said sponge divers, largely from Tarpon Springs, had destroyed every bed they encountered.
1955 – Edward B. Knight and Jack N. Thompson opened K-T Motors, Monroe County dealers for Volkswagen cars and trucks.
1967 – The 6th Battalion (HAWK) 65th Artillery dedicated and renamed four Lower Keys batteries in honor Key West Army men killed in Vietnam: Peter Knight, Richard E. Recupero, Florentino Roque, and Eckwood Solomon.
1980 – A 19-year-old Cuban refugee was pronounced dead on arrival at Florida Keys Hospital from carbon monoxide poisoning after he was taken from a sea lift boat by helicopter. He was identified as Juan Collazo Lopez.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: K-T Motors at 1111 Eaton Street circa 1965. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.