1907 – The Excavator No.1 boat was blown up and destroyed by a gasoline explosion while employed on the Florida East Coat Railroad extension. Capt. Benjamin Peacon and Sonny Parks of Key West were severely burned and brought to the island for treatment.

2008 – The dilapidated, Depression-era bandstand at Bayview Park in Key West was torn down. The bandstand had once been a community hub and the site of concerts, political rallies, and high school graduations.

1915 – A group of Key Westers took the railroad to Sugarloaf Key for a tour of the Chase sponge farm. Some of the old spongers in the group said, “they did not think such things could be done by artificial raising of sponges.”

1966 – Marine Lance Corporal Leland (Skipper) Albury, a Key West native, died from wounds he received in battle in Vietnam. Albury was a renowned tennis player for the Key West High School team, and the courts at Bayview Park are named in his honor.

1962 – Florida State Road Department surveyors were in Key West to examine the site for a proposed causeway to cross Garrison Bight. The span, to be built on fill from deepening the bight, would start between First and Fifth Streets on one end and join Palm Avenue at the intersection of Eisenhower Drive on the other.

1913 – Agustin Parla Orduna, a Key West native, flew his sea plane to Cuba, becoming the second man to fly across the Florida Straits.

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.

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.

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

1930 – A statement was read at the Key West City Commission meeting advising any Greek sponge fishermen from Tarpon Springs to avoid moving their operations to Key West.

1937 – The turtling schooner A.M. Adams arrived in Key West on its first voyage, delivering a cargo of 380 green sea turtles.

1966 – Actress and singer Jayne Mansfield began a nine-night run of her one-woman show at the Tradewinds Supper Club.

1898 - A Naval Court of Inquiry was organized to investigate the sinking of the USS Maine, and it would meet in the Key West Custom House.

1935 – The Havana Madrid Club in Key West celebrated its grand opening.

1925 – A report from Key West said, “Bathing conditions have been ideal for the past several days.

1925 – The Key West Police Department declared that, due to a rise in reckless driving, they would increase enforcement of traffic laws.

1909 – The Manuel Lopez Cigar Company of New York purchased property along Key West’s County Road (Flagler Ave.) for a new factory.

1925 – For the second year, a seasonal visitor information bureau was opened at the Key West railroad terminal.

1934 – The Long Key Fishing Camp opened a week early for its 1935 season, and guests had already arrived.

1910 – The Key West Bar Association met to gather support for the formation of a new judicial circuit.