1909 – A category 3 hurricane with winds over 100 mph and rainfall of 8.12 inches in five hours struck Key West. Buildings wholly destroyed were the cigar factories of The Ruy Lopez Company, The Martinez Company, George W. Nichols & Company, and Aurelia Torres; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; Sparks Chapel; English Wesleyan Church, Bethel A.M.E. Church; Fire Station No.1, Wolfson’s building, and Markovitz’ five & ten-cent store.

1925 – Thomas Pinder was appointed caretaker of the Monroe County Courthouse grounds at Jackson Square in Key West. Pinder was to tend to the hundreds of recently planted shrubs and trees and stop attacks on them by boys who frequented the grounds.

1985 – The City of Key West listed privately owned areas of the Key West salt ponds as desirable for purchase by the State of Florida under its Conservation and Recreation Lands (CARL) program. Many residents considered the ponds to be the last remaining natural expanse on the island.

2005 – The Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center at Florida Keys Community College was forced to close after being damaged by multiple tropical weather systems over the summer. A 500-seat, air-conditioned tent was to be erected in the parking lot to serve as an interim venue until repairs could be made.

1938 – Key Wester Charles F. Dupont died at age 77. In 1888, he became the first elected African American Sheriff in Florida when he was selected by Monroe County voters. He served as Monroe County Sheriff for five years. Key West’s DuPont Lane is named in his honor.

1960 – Dredge and fill operations at Sigsbee Park (aka Dredgers Key) were completed, and the construction of 300 new housing units there would begin shortly.

1925 – Four stowaways were found hidden in the oil tank of the P.& O. railroad car ferry Jos. R. Parrott when it landed at Key West from Havana. The men, who claimed to have been born in Portugal, were expected to be sent back to Cuba.

1948 – A category three hurricane passed over Boca Chica Naval Air Station, where a barometer reading of 28.45 and sustained winds of 122 mph were recorded. In Key West, the storm caused flooding and damage to boats and trees.

1993 – Earl Adams died at age 90. He served on the Key West City Commission and was Monroe County Clerk of Court from 1949 to 1973. He was also a reporter for the Miami Herald and Key West Citizen and wrote a long-running Key West History column for the Citizen.

1983 – A group of New York actors, playwrights and theater supporters tried to purchase the late Tennessee Williams’s home in Key West for a museum. The effort failed from the lack of support and the difficulties of converting a house located in a quiet residential neighborhood into a commercial facility.

1956 – James A. Portier of 110 Olivia Street in Key West returned home after playing his third season with the Negro League’s Indianapolis Clowns. Portier was a member of the league’s East-West All Stars, and he hoped to try out with the Kansas City A’s organization.

1906 – Barrooms were of much discussion in Key West. The city council had recently passed an ordinance prohibiting women from entering bars and from anyone dancing therein; the liquor association planned to appeal it as unconstitutional. Local ministers were asking that bars be prohibited within 400 feet of churches or schools.

1960 – Hurricane Donna passed over the Middle and Upper Keys with 150-mph winds, causing extensive damage: Over half of the structures from Marathon to Islamorada were destroyed; tides were 9 to 13.5 feet above normal; six highway bridges were severely damaged, and the water pipeline was wrecked in five places.

1964 – At 3:30 a.m., the Beatles landed at Key West International Airport, greeted by a mob of screaming fans. The group had been scheduled to perform in Jacksonville, but a hurricane diverted them to Key West. The wildly popular musicians spent two days at the Key Wester Motel on South Roosevelt Boulevard.

1905 – Three hundred men were working on Key Largo to build the railroad bed for the Florida East Coast’s Overseas Railway, and five miles had been graded on the island to that date. Another crew was making soundings and drilling bore holes at Knights Key to determine the best foundation to cross it.

1925 – A celebration was held for the opening of the Boca Chica bridge, the first step in the new Overseas Highway being built through the Florida Keys. A “mammoth motorcade” left Key West, crossed Stock Island and then traversed the new bridge to Rocky Point on Boca Chica Key for the celebration.

1935 – The most intense hurricane to hit the United States passed over Long Key and Lower Matecumbe Key. The category five storm had a barometer reading of 26.35, winds estimated at around 200 mph, and tides 18 to 20 feet above normal. The storm killed over 400 people, many of them WWI veterans employed in building new highway bridges, and put the already financially troubled Overseas Railroad out of business.

1945 – A contract was renewed for Fred Howland, Inc. to complete the construction of 155 low-cost Navy housing units at the end of White Street across from Rest Beach in Key West.

2010 – The Key West City Commission voted 5-2 to include a referendum on the November ballot asking voters whether the city should acquire the Glynn Archer school building for use as a City Hall.

1930 – It was reported that 100 sharks, averaging 7 feet each, were being caught daily near Big Pine Key by boats working for the Hydenoil Company. “Not a particle of the shark is thrown away” was said of Hydenoil’s processing system, which focused on shark leather and liver oil.