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December 2, 1755 - England’s Eddystone Lighthouse catches fire and is completely destroyed. The 94-year-old keeper, Henry Hall, survives the fire, but dies 12 days later as the result of swallowing more than seven ounces of molten lead. A new lighthouse is completed in 1759.
December 1, 1787 - Kinnaird Head Lighthouse, the first lighthouse established by the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland, goes into service.
December 10, 1856 - Battery Point Light, the ninth lighthouse in California, is put into service.
December 28, 1857 - Cape Flattery Light on Tatoosh Island, Washington, begins operation.
December 21, 1864 - Keeper Alexander Bray of the Thacher Island twin lights off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, leaves the island to take an assistant to the mainland for medical attention. His wife, Maria Bray, keeps both lights burning for the next two nights through a raging blizzard. Both towers have 148 steps to the top.
December 27, 1909 - The schooner Malcolm Baxter Jr., while being towed into Norfolk Harbor by a tugboat, crashes into Thimble Shoal Lighthouse. The collision overturns a coal stove and the lighthouse catches fire. The two keepers escape, but the lighthouse is destroyed. A new caisson lighthouse is built on the site in 1914.
December 25, 1929 - Maine pilot William H. Wincapaw flies over the lighthouses of the Penobscot Bay region, dropping Christmas gifts for the keepers and their families. The Flying Santa tradition started by Wincapaw is later taken over by historian Edward Rowe Snow, and it continues today with the efforts of the nonprofit Friends of Flying Santa.
December 31, 1973 - Fire Island Lighthouse, New York, is decommissioned. It was relit as an official aid to navigation in 1986, thanks to the efforts of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society.
December 1998 - Plymouth Lighthouse, Massachusetts, is moved 140 feet back from the edge of an eroding bluff.
December 11, 2003 - Frank Schubert dies at the age of 88 at Coney Island Light Station, New York. He was believed to be the last living person who served as a lighthouse keeper under the old U.S. Lighthouse Service, and had spent 43 years as keeper and caretaker at Coney Island.
This story appeared in the
December 2006 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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