20 Years ago

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Florida East Coast Railway, Key West Extension. Collier's, Vol XLVIII, No 18. 20 January 1912. Gift of Mrs. Page Brown.
 
1957: Baseball great Ted Williams, fishing with guide Jimmie Albright, had a fishing duel in the Florida Keys with golf legend Sam Snead, fishing with guide Cecil Keith. Williams won with two bonefish to Snead's one.
 
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The USS Maine entering Havana Harbor on January 26, 1898. Photo from the Monroe County Library Collection.


1898: The Battleship Maine arrived at Havana, Cuba, at 11 a.m.

1912: The Railroad Celebration Committee hosted more than 1,500 men of the U.S. and foreign warships, the Army Barracks, National Guard and Naval Militia at the baseball grounds. The mayor thanked them for their work in making the celebration a success.

1928: The first Overseas Highway, from Key West to Miami via Card Sound and with a ferry from No Name Key to Lower Matecumbe, was opened.

1976: A father and son reported a UFO over Key West.:willy_nilly:
 
Cool ship. Although I'm partial to the USS Oregon.

USS MAINE - ACR-1 - BATTLESHIP

USS Maine (ACR-1), the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the state of Maine, was a 6,682-ton second-class pre-dreadnought battleship originally designated as Armored Cruiser #1. Maine and Texas were unusual in that their armament was mounted en echelon, projected off to either side (Maine's forward turret was off to starboard and her aft turret to port; the arrangement was reversed on Texas). This severely limited their ability to fire on a broadside. Maine was the stronger of the two ships, but inferior in every way to the later Indiana-class coastal battleships and subsequent ships.

Congress authorized her construction on August 3, 1886, and her keel was laid down on October 17, 1888, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was launched on November 18, 1889, sponsored by Miss Alice Tracey Wilmerding (granddaughter of Navy Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy), and commissioned on September 17, 1895, under the command of Captain Arent S. Crowninshield.

The sinking of the Maine on February 15, 1898 precipitated the Spanish-American War and also popularized the phrase Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain! In subsequent years, the cause of the sinking of the Maine became the subject of much speculation. The cause of the explosion that sank the ship remains an unsolved mystery.
 
:boxing_smiley:1979: Famous writer and Key West resident Tennessee Williams and his friend, Datson Rader, were assaulted on Duval Street. Both men were punched but neither needed medical attention.
 
1935: Maxwell Perkins, editor for Scribner's magazine, Earl Roman, Rod and Reel editor for the Miami Herald and Ernest Hemingway were fishing in Hemingway's boat when all three men caught sailfish.
 
TODAY IN HISTORY:

1926: Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight boxing champion, and his wife, his trainers and sparring partners arrived en route to Havana. While in Key West Dempsey put on several exhibitions.

1931: Pauline Hemingway caught a sailfish that measured 7 feet, 1 inch to set a record for the season.

1953: Famed orchestra leader Guy Lombardo and his family checked into the Casa Marina Hotel for a vacation.



1967: Wisteria Island (also known as Christmas Tree Island) was sold for $155,000. The seller was Wisteria Island, Inc. The buyer was FEB Corporation of 1526 Washington St. the address of Ben Bernstein, a major land developer of Stock Island.

1970: Guy Lombardo and his orchestra were the featured entertainment at the dedication of the new Indies Inn Convention Hall on Duck Key.



1982: An Air Florida passenger plane from Miami to Key West was hijacked and taken to Cuba.
 
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Raul's Nightclub on South Roosevelt blvd. C 1950. Jeff Broadhead Collection.




1953: The Key West City Commission passed an ordinance outlawing soliciting the sale of alcoholic beverages in the city bars and nightclubs. Scores of local B-Girls were thrown out of work by the new law.

1961: Movie star and nightclub entertainer Stepin Fetchit, born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry in Key West in 1893, appeared at Raul's Club on South Roosevelt.

1964: Four Cuban fishing vessels caught within U.S. territorial waters near the Dry Tortugas were brought in by the Coast Guard.
 
1955: Hundreds of persons in Key West, and from Central Florida to Cuba, saw a large meteor flash across the sky at 7:30 p.m. The first impression of a number of people was it was an A-bomb explosion
 
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Hemingway house and gardens before wall or pool. Circa 1932-33. The Heritage House Collection, donated by the Campbell, Poirier and Pound families.

1964: The Hemingway House was formally dedicated as a museum honoring the memory of the late Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner who lived in Key West in the 1930s.
 
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Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery. Photo from the Monroe County Library Collection.

TODAY IN HISTORY:

1898: The Battleship Maine was destroyed by an explosion in Havana Harbor.

1925: John Phillip Sousa, the famous march king, arrived from Havana with his wife and daughter. They were guests at the Hotel Casa Marina.



1958: Ralph Evinrude and his wife, Frances Langford,stopped in Key West on their yacht.:driving:



1985: The gunsight hood from the Battleship Maine that had been at Harris School since it was given to Key West was moved to the new Key West Post Office on Whitehead Street and rededicated.



1998: The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor was observed in Key West. The restored Battleship Maine plot in the Key West Cemetery was rededicated.
 
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