Today in History

Fat Albert on Cudjoe Key.

 10 years ago

 Tourists were back and took over downtown and grabbed any available plot of sand on Smathers Beach.

50 YEARS AGO

About 50 Fidel Castro sympathizers staged a protest at the post office on Simonton Street over an alleged plot by Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic to help Fulgencio Batista forces in Cuba.

 The U.S. Air Force was planning a missile tracking site on Cudjoe Key, where the Fat Albert blimp is based. The site was an adjunct of the Eglin Air Force Base near Panama City, Fla.

The Florida Board of Conservation conditionally approved a request from Gulf Oil Corp. to conduct seismographic tests north of Key West in search of oil.

A Cuban Army colonel for Batista's forces defected to Key West and applied for asylum.

 Ralph Sierra, a Key West native, was appointed to a civil service post in Hawaii.

 100 YEARS AGO

The new schedule for the P. & O. Steamship Line called for four steamers a week from Tampa and six a week from Knights Key.