Monday, February 25, 2013

ON THIS DAY IN:

1828William Pinckney, collector of Customs, completed a census and reported a population of 421.

1893 In 1892, the Key West Custom House collected $827,147.79 in import duties. That was more than collected in the rest of Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

1910 Col. W.H. Towles commenced erecting a new slaughterhouse of wood with a concrete floor at the ocean end of White Street. The old slaughterhouse was destroyed by the Hurricane of 1909.

1948 President Harry Truman arrived in Key West from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For the next eight days he rested before returning to Washington.

1951 Secretary of the Navy Francis Matthews was the principal speaker at the official opening and dedication ceremony of the East Martello Tower for use as a museum and art gallery by the Key West Art and Historical Society.

1954 President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Paul E. Albury to be postmaster at Tavernier.

1971 Four Cuban fishing vessels were seized and their crews arrested near the Dry Tortugas and charged with fishing inside U.S. territorial waters.

1976 The Monroe County Commission approved pay raises for 16 employees. The county had more than 300 people on the payroll, including 144 funded under the CETA program.

1983 Key West resident and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams was found dead in his hotel in Manhattan. The death was ruled accidental.

1994 The Monroe County Commission changed the design for Key West International Airport. They voted to return to the original plans, which had been ditched following complaints that the building was too "Disney."