20 Years ago

[Ratickle]

Coffee and his three cups? I only wear one cup when playing football......

[Bobcat]

50 YEARS AGO:

Two teenagers released from juvenile detention for the holidays were suspected of three break-ins and thefts, and were on the way to Seattle in a stolen car.

[Bobcat]

50 YEARS AGO:

The two juvenile that had been released from detention for Christmas then had stolen a car and set out for Seattle were arrested by the FBI in Texas.

[Ratickle]

I wonder what happened after that? Out on bond in Texas and stole a car to go to Canada?

[Bobcat]

I figger'd They made it to Washington...and bought an old 377 .....

[Bobcat]

The Cuban Ferry City of Havana at the dock on Stock Island



Today in History:

1857:William R. Hackley reported in his diary, "The calm weather has lasted so long that the fresh water from the Everglades has drifted down to the Keys. The fishermen say that in the Northwest Channel the water was fresh enough to drink and that they did drink full drafts of it. The fish continue to die in great numbers and of all kind."

1940: The Marine detachment took formal charge of guarding the Naval Station. Private First Class William Loftin received the keys to the station from civilian watchman, W.H. Collins. In 1932 when the station closed Loftin had turned the keys over to Collins.

1951:Gerald Saunders was elected Chairman of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners.

1954:Lawrence P. Artman, owner and publisher of The Key West Citizen, died at the Monroe General Hospital, five weeks after suffering a stroke at his desk. He had owned the paper since 1912.

1958: A winter storm battered Key West sinking boats and caused damage across the city. The weather bureau reported steady winds of 40 m.p.h. with gusts to 62. A total of 1.86 inches of rain fell.

1959: Advance spearheads of Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces enter Havana. The auto-passenger ferry City of Havana left Key West on a special round trip to Havana to evacuate American citizens who wished to return to this country.

[Bobcat]

1959: About 500 Castro supporters sailed from Key West to Cuba on the auto-passenger ferry City of Havana.

1961: President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke diplomatic relations with Castro's Cuba.

1967: Heavily armed Cuban and Haitian exiles bent on overthrowing Haitian dictator Francois Duvaler and then moving on to hit Fidel Castro were arrested north of Marathon before they could launch their invasion.

[old377guy]

I figger'd They made it to Washington...and bought an old 377 .....

I'd prefer to keep the details of my boat aquisition hijinks private -thank you very much

[old377guy]

I figger'd They made it to Washington...and bought an old 377 .....

I'd prefer to keep the details of my boat aquisition hijinks private -thank you very much

[Ratickle]

Well, he either started stuttering, or really means it!!!!!

[Bobcat]

1974: T.V. stars Jonathan Winters and Ernest Borgnine arrived in Key West to join Curt Gowdy in filming an ocean fishing feature for the ABC TV "American Sportsman.

[Ratickle]

Now that fishing trip had to be one heck of a laugh off.......

[Bobcat]

1951: The crew of the 20th-Century-Fox movie "The Frogmen" arrived in Key West. The film which stared Dana Andrews, Richard Widmark and Gary Merrill was filmed partly in Key West.

[Bobcat]

1959: Persistent rumors that the boat that brought Cuban Senator Rolando Masferrer to Key West carried $17 million. Also rumors of a large amount of money on Batista's private yacht that arrived with seven Cuban naval officers. Customs had not searched the boats when they arrived and a later search revealed slightly more than $90,000 on the Batista yacht.



1997: A commercial fisherman fishing near Pickles Reef landed a Great White Shark that measured 17 feet and weighed an estimated 1,500 to 1,800 pounds

[Bobcat]

An Air Sunshine DC-3 at Key West International Airport. From The Ida Woodward Barron Collection


1935: The first traffic light was installed in Key West.



1974:Bernie Clayton Papy Jr. and Steve Alex bought American Air Taxi and renamed the firm "Air Sunshine."

1976: The first Fort Lauderdale to Key West sailboat race began at 10 a.m.

[Bobcat]

1967: A Key West-based crawfishing boat and two boats out of Marathon were involved in a gun battle near the Cay Sal Banks, Bahamas, in which one man was killed and one wounded.

1974: ABC records finished shooting a film special at the Pier House titled "Introducing Jimmy Buffet."

[Ratickle]

Gun battle over crawfish? Did they used to call lobster crawfish?

[Bobcat]

Technically they are Crawfish....no Pincers !

[Bobcat]

1989: President-elect George H. Bush arrived at Marathon airport to spend a few days fishing at Islamorada.

1994: Former City Commissioner Harry Powell in an attempt to stop construction of the Navy housing project at Peary Court took over a construction trailer with what he claimed was dynamite with a dead man's switch. After a nine hour stand-off he was taken into custody and charged armed burglary and possession of a destructive device.( I think He had Hot Dogs tied around a belt)



1861: During the night Capt. James M. Brannan commanding the Army Barracks Key West (now Peary Court Navy Housing) marched his men to Fort Taylor and took command of the fort. This action ensured that Key West would remain in the Union during the Civil War and provided the Union Navy with a secure base to blockade southern ports.

1923: An Aero-Marine Airways plane from Key West to Havana crashed off the Cuban Coast and four passengers were lost. The railroad ferry rescued the other five people on the plane.

[Bobcat]

1941: Capt. Edward "Bra" Saunders, 75, died at his residence. Capt. Saunders was the fishing guide for Ernest Hemingway and "gang." Hemingway used him as his model for the character Capt. Willie Adams in the novel "To Have and Have Not."