1984 – Harry Knight won the Democratic primary race and was automatically reelected as Monroe County Tax Collector. Other winners were Circuit Court Judge Richard Fowler, Public Defender Rand Winter, and School Board Member Dr. Geraldine Caron.

1956 – The Key West High School on Flagler Avenue was opened. Grades eight through twelve went into the new facility, and all sixth and seventh graders were transferred to the old high school on White Street, which was renamed Memorial Junior High.

1963 – A strike by retail clerks of the Food Fair supermarkets in the Florida Keys became violent. In Key West, there was a bomb threat, a company accountant was beaten, and a newly hired cashier had his tires slashed. In Marathon, the store manager was threatened by a young man carrying a rifle.

1988 – Pritam Singh held a ground-breaking ceremony to begin construction on the ambitious redevelopment of Truman Annex in Key West.

1953 – Charles Aronovitz retired from the Key West business his father started in 1889 and which he had taken over in 1939. The Aronovitz name would remain on the island, though, as his son Sidney opened another retail store at 622 Duval Street.

1956 – Construction of Key West’s new International Airport was expected to cost $1.1 million by the time of its scheduled opening in March 1957. The facility was badly needed as the number of passengers was growing considerably, from 39,000 in 1947 to an estimated 170,000 in 1956.

1961 – Monroe County Commissioner Clarence Higgs died suddenly at his Grinnell Street home in Key West at age 59. Higgs had been on the commission since 1944, and he was active in organized labor, having served as business manager of the local Carpenters’ Union for 22 years.

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.”

1951 – Popular entertainment personality Arthur Godfrey broadcast his daily, nationwide CBS Radio show from Pigeon Key.

1975 – Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies, Navy personnel, and volunteers were working to remove 6,000 pounds of baled marijuana that washed ashore along Boca Chica and other keys. One bag was labeled “Bogota,” but there was no evidence of a boat that dumped the $2.5 million haul.

1935 – Officials from the Florida Works Progress Administration met with a large group of sponge fishermen to discuss the idea of a cooperative sponge exchange in Key West. By bringing better structure to the industry and finding new ways to market the product, it was thought Keys sponging could be revitalized.

1960 – A two-day “autorama,” presented by Bevis Lewis Chevrolet, Estenoz Motors, K.T. Motors, Duncan Auto Sales, and Navarro, Inc., began at the Food Fair Shopping Center in Key West. The gala event gave the public a first look at the new 1961 automobile models.

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.