1942 – Four city blocks were condemned for expansion of the Key West Naval Station: One bounded by Whitehead, Fleming, Thomas and Eaton streets; others from Eaton to Angela between Thomas and Emma. The owners of the many homes in those blocks were paid a total of $165,702 for their properties.

1912 – The new 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. The Airdome at 509 Duval Street in Key West was showing the 1903 film “The Great Train Robbery.” Admission was 10 cents for unlimited viewing.

1988 – The Key West City Commission, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, approved plans to rebuild the Cuban Club at 1102 and 1108 Duval Street. The original building had been destroyed by fire in 1983.

1946 – Records of the Key West Housing Authority showed that between August 17, 1942, and Sept. 30, 1945, one million sandwiches and three-quarters of a million meals were prepared by the KWHA in the Gato Cafeteria on Simonton Street. A total of 6,000 war workers were housed in the dormitory there during the period.

1986 – The schooner Wolf was proclaimed the flagship of the Conch Republic by Monroe County Mayor Wilhelmina Harvey. “As flagship of the Conch Republic fleet, we’ve placed the ship at the service of the republic,” said Captain Finbar Gittelman, who proudly used only traditional methods to sail Wolf.

1976 – The long-time home of Alvin and Eva Scott at 814 Windsor Lane in Key West was destroyed by fire. Passers-by rescued the elderly couple from the burning house, with Mrs. Scott requiring particular assistance, as she was completely blind. 

1955 – A mysterious, early morning fire destroyed the living quarters of Key Largo’s famed Caribbean Club, killing Emma Jo Selby of Miami.

1937 – Construction of the José Martí Monument in Bayview Park began when Raoul A. Pizer y Pollo, representing the government of Cuba, presented the structure’s cornerstone to Key West Mayor Harry C. Galey.

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. 

1960 – After the lack of a rear exit forced firemen to break through the roof of a burning Duval Street store to fight the blaze, Key West Fire Chief Charles Cremata was conducting “fine-tooth comb” inspections all buildings on Duval to ensure they had proper exits and fire escapes.

1928 – The first transoceanic airplanes in passenger service flew from Key West’s Meacham Field to Havana. The first Pan-American-operated plane carried mail and three passengers: Thomas Bryson, editor of the Citizen; Louis Bragassa, deputy collector of customs; and Albert Caviness, assistant emigration inspector. Passengers on a second plane were: Jorge Ponce, Cuban consul to Key West; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Peyson of New York; and Commander John Loudon, aide to President Cool

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.

1955 – Florida Greyhound buses resumed service after a drivers’ strike. Airlines, and even cab drivers, had been able to get some travelers from Key West to Miami, but there was particular concern in the Keys that Navy personnel would not have been able to travel for the holidays.

1935 – The Cortez Cigar Co. building on Ann Street in Key West was destroyed by fire. The first alarm sounded at 10 a.m. and all the city’s firefighters arrived to battle the blaze, but the flames spread too quickly to be contained. Chief Harry Baker thought the fire was set intentionally.

1935 – Biologist Emory Lowe Pierce of the Key West Aquarium received notice that his proposal for a crawfish and stone crab hatchery had been approved by Washington. Pierce said that as soon as he could set up the equipment, the process of hatching the crustaceans would begin.

1975 – The “Doomsday Atlas” prepared by the U.S. Defense Civil Preparedness Agency showed that the area from Sugarloaf Key to Key West would be devastated in a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union due to an attack on the Naval Air Station at Boca Chica.

1909 – Monroe County Deputy Sheriff B.W. Glisson arrived at Key West from Knight’s Key on the steamer Mascotte, with prisoners Manuel Moses, Nod Cornell, Elio McKinney, and E.E. Whalton. Glisson had arrested the men for selling whiskey without a license at the railroad work camps.

2010 – Buyers from China, Taiwan, and other overseas markets were paying between $5 and $7 per pound for spiny lobster, making Florida Keys crawfishermen very happy. These prices were double what they had been the previous year.

1945 – The Key West Drug Company, at the corner of Simonton and Fleming streets, featured a window display of trophies collected in the South Pacific by Key Wester Leo Braxton Warren, Chief Pharmacist Mate, USN, during his wartime service.

1985 – An early morning fire destroyed the Siboney Inn at the corner of Truman Avenue and Elizabeth Street in Key West, as well as an adjacent residence at 919 Elizabeth. Three firefighters were overcome by smoke while battling the large blaze.