1910 – A large angel made of Italian marble and set on a base of Vermont granite was erected in the Key West Cemetery to the memory of 17-year-old Gladys J. Bates, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. W.L. Bates.

1937 – A plan was approved to remove WPA highway workers from the Upper Keys and bring them to Key West in case of a hurricane. Coast Guard patrol boats were to be used to move the men to No Name Key where they would then be taken to Key West by automobile.

1936 – The U.S. Coast Guard cable ship Pequot completed the laying of 23,000 feet of communication cable from Alligator Reef Lighthouse to Lower Matecumbe Key. An earlier cable had been destroyed in the hurricane of September 1935, and the lighthouse had been cut off since then.

2001 – The Welters family compound on Rockland Key was destroyed in an overnight blaze. The set of colorful buildings with a small farm had been home to 98-year-old Lewis Welters and members of his extended family for over 50 years.

1864 – A soldier stationed at Fort Jefferson wrote of the burial of his comrade Henry Wilson: “His body was put on a skiff at the wharf then a salute of eight guns at once, three times. I then by request was permitted to attend the body with those who went to inter it. It is on an island about 2 miles north of this fort & is called Sand Key.”

1936 – To generate funds for maintenance, the Key West Aquarium began charging an admission fee. The price of entry was 15 cents for adults and five cents for children.

1900 – Several thousand Key Westers watched a quarter-mile race at Barracks Beach between the horses Laconda and Levin. Laconda won by a length. The bet was $1000 per side, and much money passed hands outside of the official stakes.

1917 – John Lowe Jr. died in Key West at the age of 84. He came to the island from the Bahamas when he was 15 years old and worked for William Curry. He later started his own business and became the island’s leading sponge dealer. His home at 620 Southard Street is one of the architectural treasures of Key West.

1961 – Steel support beams, each 40 feet long and weighing 6,000 pounds, were placed atop the new Scottish Rite Temple at Eaton and Simonton streets in Key West to allow for another floor for the building.

1986 – Monroe County Commissioners voted to open the county’s three landfill sites once a month with no disposal fees. The move was prompted by the increased dumping of garbage and junk in empty lots throughout the Keys.

1865 – Dr. Samuel Mudd, Edward Spangler, Michael O'Laughlen, and Samuel Arnold – all convicted as conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln – arrived at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas to serve their prison terms. They joined 552 other prisoners being held there.

1904 – Mrs. Clarence K. Till, widow of police officer Till, was presented with a deed to a house and lot bought by the citizens of Key West after her husband was killed in the line of duty.

1992 – Key West’s El Salvador United Methodist Church disbanded after 115 years.

1946 – The Johnson homestead at the corner of Duval and Eaton streets in Key West sold for $9,000. The property had a frontage of 130 feet on Duval and 134 feet on Eaton. It had been in the Johnson family for more than 75 years.

1926 – Monroe County High School was accredited by the Florida Department of Education as a Class A institution. Graduates could now enter Florida colleges and universities without taking an examination.

1926 – Key West society came out for the opening of the new Key West Country Club. The building was decorated with flags and flowers; draperies and chandeliers adorned the interior. Irene Reynolds and Miss R.T. Vertuen sang, and dancer Little Miss Hansen performed some “unusual steps.”

1861 – Supplies and a detachment of 62 troops from the First U.S. Artillery were landed at Fort Taylor from the steamer Daniel Webster to reinforce Capt. John M. Brannan’s company. The Webster then steamed to the Dry Tortugas with additional men and six months of provisions for Fort Jefferson.

1898 – The steamer Olivette arrived at Key West with 45 survivors of the U.S. Battleship Maine, which had exploded in Havana Harbor. The wounded were received at the Marine Hospital.

1956 – Monroe County engineers presented plans for new amenities at Indian Key Fill to the commission. The planned improvements included four round, concrete bathhouses with showers, along with picnic tables and benches.

1976 – Monroe County commissioners voted to demolish the long-abandoned and “haunted” Clark mansion in Marathon. The once-palatial waterfront home had been vacant since the owner was found floating dead in an adjacent lagoon over 20 years earlier. In more recent times the structure had been occupied by transient squatters.