Also 200 years ago this week, the first sighting of a land shark in Key West.Two hundred years ago this week, the American flag was raised over the island of Key West for the first time.
The Navy sent the schooner Shark to check out Key West in 1822 after the island was bought by an American merchant.
Two hundred years later, the Shark's logbook is back in town. The Key West Maritime Historical Society recently acquired the journal and gave it to the Monroe County Library for its Florida History collection.
Logbook documenting first official U.S. visit to Key West returns to the island after 200 years
The crew from the USS Shark raised the American flag over Key West for the first time on March 25, 1822. Now the ship's logbook is part of local historic archives.www.wlrn.org
Ironically it happened on Good Friday.
On March 27, 1964, the strongest earthquake in American history, measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale, slams southern Alaska, creating a deadly tsunami. Some 131 people were killed and thousands injured.
The massive earthquake had its epicenter about 12 miles north of Prince William Sound. Approximately 300,000 square miles of U.S., Canadian, and international territory were affected. Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, sustained the most property damage, with about 30 blocks of dwellings and commercial buildings damaged or destroyed in the downtown area. Fifteen people were killed or fatally injured as a direct result of the three-minute quake, and then the ensuing tsunami killed another 110 people.
The tidal wave, which measured over 100 feet at points, devastated towns along the Gulf of Alaska and caused carnage in British Columbia, Canada; Hawaii; and the West Coast of the United States, where 15 people died. Total property damage was estimated in excess of $400 million. The day after the quake, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Alaska an official disaster area.