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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1912 – The Monroe Theater at 623 Duval was screening the 1911 Irish feature “Arrah-na-pogue,” with admission at 10, 15 or 20 cents, based on seating.

2010 – After having had the lowest census participation rate in Florida in 2000, Monroe County had the highest for 2010.

1958 – Billy Watkins Moody, serving a sentence in Monroe County Jail for larceny, admitted to having started multiple fires in Key West.

1970 – After 75 years of operation, the storm warning station at Lumley & Roberts Hardware Store was removed.

1941 – Eight female students at Key West High School formed a carpentry class – the first of their sex to do so.

1935 – A group of 10 Key West women went to Pirate’s Cove on Sugarloaf Key for lunch and an afternoon of playing bridge.

956 – The Cuban ferry, the City of Havana, sailed for the first time from the new terminal on Stock Island.

1938 – After two years of discussion and planning, the Key West City Council passed an ordinance providing for zoning within city limits.

2005 – The Monroe County School Board approved the demolition of the existing Poinciana Elementary School and the construction of a new one.

1899 – The Key West Electric Street Railway company opened with a streetcar that ran up and down Duval and to La Brisa.

1924 – So many tourists were traveling between Key West and Havana that the steamship Governor Cobb had to make an extra trip.

1954 – After completing structural surveys, the Florida Road Department greenlighted 2,000 feet of fishing catwalks on bridges.

1964 – The Hemingway House opened as a museum dedicated to telling of the late author’s life in Key West.

1975 – The Oldest House on Duval Street officially opened as a museum.