Saturday, March 2, 2013

ON THIS DAY IN:

1898 The Court of Inquiry investigating the loss of the Battleship Maine met in the Key West Custom House.

1906 A group of men in a small boat in Jewfish Channel killed a 8-foot-long seal that weighed about 800 pounds.

1911 The Key West City Directory listed 30 cigar manufacturers.

1927 The Key West Junior Woman's Club was created under the direction of Mrs. Andrew Miller, past president of the Woman's Club.

1951 President Harry Truman arrived for a three-week vacation at the Little White House.

1954 Six Navy men were killed when two helicopters collided in midair over Fleming Key. The planes, attached to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 1, had just taken off from the Trumbo Point base.

1955 The Navy's Underwater Photo Team was developing a film to be shown on CBS television.

1981 A backhoe loaded on a truck crossing the Seven Mile Bridge hit the overhead bridge tender's shack, rupturing a 1,000-gallon propane tank, causing a fire that killed the bridge tender, Peter C. Fancher, and destroyed the swing bridge mechanisms. The bridge was closed for 22 hours; the swing bridge was never fixed and removed when the new Seven Mile Bridge opened.