1983 – The $3.9 million sale of Key West’s Sands Beach Club to New York developer Austin Laber was completed. Laber revealed that he planned to demolish the three-year-old waterfront complex and build the Reach Hotel.

1931 – Key West golf champion Robert Spottswood and six-time Havana women’s champion Mabel Stanford played an exhibition match at the Key West course, with Spottswood emerging victorious. Sanford, who had lived in Key West as a child, said the course was one of the trickiest she had played.

2001 – County-owned Higgs Beach Park needed a $2 million renovation, prompting many to wonder whether Monroe County should hold and maintain a park that is entirely within the city of Key West. Monroe County Mayor George Neugent felt the money could be better spent on recreation facilities in unincorporated areas of the county.

1926 – The shipment of Cuban pineapples from Key West by train was stymied when 150 men who transferred the fruit from the steamships to the rails walked off the job, demanding 60 cents an hour instead of 50 cents. The pineapple season was at its peak, and 160 railcar loads had shipped the day before.

1980 – A task force of Key West business leaders was formed to combat the perception that Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift had overwhelmed the island. Merchants reported that business was down between 25 and 50 per cent compared to the previous year.

1971 – Florida Secretary of State Richard Stone announced that Fort Taylor and the Key West Armory had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1926 – Two men attempted to break into the Key West Custom House by drilling a 12-inch diameter hole through the basement wall, hoping to access the area where seized liquor, jewelry, cigars, narcotics, and other valuables were kept. A night watchman encountered the men and fired shots at them, but they escaped via the waterfront.

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1968 – National Air Lines made the first jet landing at Key West International Airport using a Boeing 727. The county had extended the runway and removed obstructions to make the airport usable for jets.

1946 – The Navy announced a delay in returning the Key West Aquarium to the city, as they wanted to make sure it was in the same condition as when received. The concern was in finding photographs of the WPA murals, so the artwork could be properly restored. The aquarium had been used as a rifle range during the war.

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.”

1956 – A fisheries report for September 1955 was released that showed Monroe County landed the largest shrimp catch in Florida, with 844,320 pounds brought into Keys ports during the month.

1986 – Construction began on a project to widen U.S. 1 in Marathon from two lanes to four lanes from 37th to 107th Streets. Work was expected to be completed in late 1987.

1956 – Congressman Dante Fascell advised that the deed from the Navy to Monroe County for the 17.5-acre Martello tract at the airport had cleared the Justice Department and would be filed at the county courthouse at any time. The property transfer would allow construction of a new airport terminal to move forward.

2016 – A federal appeals court ruled against a development group that claimed ownership of Wisteria Island in Key West Harbor, saying the statute of limitations on any title dispute had expired in 1963. The decision meant the Bureau of Land Management’s claim to the island remained in place.

1956 – Monroe County Juvenile Court Judge Eva Warner Gibson called attention to an alarming increase in cases of juvenile delinquency. In an average year, she would sentence six to nine offenders to State industrial Schools. But in January and February of 1956, six had already been sentenced – a trend that could see 36 Monroe youth sent to State Schools.

1940 – Capt. Walter F. Jacobs, Commander of the Key West Naval Station, turned the first shovel full of dirt to begin construction of the new Naval Air Station at Trumbo Point. The Ivy H. Smith Company of Jacksonville would build the hangar and other structures.

1941 – A team of FBI agents raided the “Alice Reid House” at 1016 Howe Street in Key West and arrested Reid and her husband, a bartender, and an unnamed soldier on prostitution-related charges. The house was reputed to be a brothel, and a woman had been strangled there a month earlier.

1976 – Windsor Village Condominiums, a one-acre tract with 11 houses and fronted by Windsor Lane, was established as a Key West literary compound. Writers John Hersey, Ralph Ellison, John Ciardi, and Richard Wilbur made the first purchases.

1874 – Vice-President Francisco Vicente Aguilera and Secretary Hilario Cisneros of the Cuban Republic-in arms visited Key West to foster support for Cuba’s independence from Spain. They spoke at the San Carlos Institute, and a torchlight procession through the streets was held in their honor.