1954 – Taxi drivers from two cab companies petitioned the Key West City Commission for exclusive rights to their traditional stand on Duval Street near Greene. They said outside drivers were moving in, which was creating crowding and a traffic hazard.

1955 – Key West photographer Larry Karns was holding an exhibit of recent work at his 220 Duval Street studio. The focus of his new images was the “fast disappearing” architecture found in the island’s decaying homes, forts, and cigar factories.

1975 – A new turbine for the FKAA desalination plant on Stock Island arrived at Key West via an emergency Air Sunshine flight. A severe drought had caused Lower Keys water levels to drop very low, and desalinated seawater was crucial to getting through the dry spell.

1980 – As the Mariel boatlift continued to grow, President Jimmy Carter ordered 400 U.S. Marines to Key West to take charge of Cuban refugee management.

1955 – Work on the stands for the Key West High School Stadium was well underway, and the job was expected to be completed within the week. When done, the stands would seat 3,076 people.

1957 – A ground-breaking ceremony was held for construction of the Key West Moose Lodge on Eisenhower Drive. The organization had recently purchased the lot for the club’s new home.

2000 – Long-time Key West resident Marion Stevens died. In the early 1960s, Stevens opened the Artists Unlimited gallery on Duval Street, a focal point of the island’s arts community for the next 30 years. She was also active in Key West politics and was a leader of the successful anti-high-rise movement in the 1970s.

1955 – Monroe County commissioners deeded 1/2-acre of land near Hilton Haven to the Key West Lions Club. The County retained all mineral rights for the property, though.

1961 – ABC Television aired an episode of the series “Expedition” featuring Marathon and the Middle Keys, with a focus on the area’s recovery from Hurricane Donna.

2000 – The Florida Department of Community Affairs awarded Key West an additional 54 units of affordable housing under the Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) because the city had preserved the Berg property, an unaltered beachfront area and home to many species of indigenous Keys plants and animals.

1860 – The U.S. Navy steamer Mohawk brought the captured slave ship Wildfire into Key West Harbor. The Wildfire had 510 Africans on board – people taken from the Congo River region and intended to be sold into slavery in Cuba. The Wildfire was in violation of U.S. and international law, and the Navy had been searching for such lawbreakers.

1963 – Entomologists were zeroing in a species of whitefly recently found on Stock Island as the spreader of a lethal yellowing virus that was destroying coconut palms. Since its first appearance in Key West in 1954, the disease had killed 80% of Lower Keys coconut trees.

1982 – The last span of the new Seven Mile Bridge was put into place.

1956 – Monroe County Commissioner Harry Harris announced that plans for U.S. 1 to bypass Boca Chica Naval Air Station were sent to the Florida Road Department for final approval. At the time, the highway cut through the air station, which was creating problems for both the Navy and civilians. The new bypass would skirt around the base on the Gulf side.

1963 – Sam Golan, owner of the Key Ambassador Hotel and the Holiday Inn, was named president of Key West Films, Inc. The company’s mission was to create Keys-based films, and it had recently backed the production of “Man In the Water,” (aka “Escape From Hell Island”) starring Mark Stevens.

1961 – Charles Helberg, the builder and original proprietor of the Key Wester hotel, resumed control of the resort after it had been under the charge of an absentee hotel management group for four years. Helberg said the absentee model did not serve patrons, employees, or the community very well.

2010 – Nearly 200 Key West residents met with city staff to offer ideas for the development of 6.6 acres of land in Truman Waterfront Park. Creating an open green space and turning a former Navy mess hall into a community center were the leading choices.

1982 – The Florida Keys seceded from the United States in a mock ceremony to protest the U.S. Border Patrol’s establishment of a roadblock at Florida City to check the citizenship of everyone leaving Monroe County.

1943 – The Pirate’s Cove Fishing Lodge, along Bow Channel on Sugarloaf Key, was turned over to the Coast Guard. Work started immediately to convert the buildings into barracks for the Guardsmen who would be protecting Keys waters. 

1980 – The Key West fishing boats Dos Hermanos and Blanche III arrived in Key West with 48 Cuban refugees, which began the Mariel Boatlift.