1935 – A tally of casualties from the Upper Keys hurricane showed 285 veterans employed as bridge workers were dead or missing, and 101 were injured and hospitalized. Of civilian residents, 125 were dead, and 151 were hospitalized.

1946 – In a special meeting, Key West city commissioners authorized the purchase of the Sweeny beachfront property at the south end of Duval Street for $37,000. The property was to be used as a bathing beach and to provide recreational facilities for the city.

1986 – The Truman Annex ex-Navy base in Key West sold at government auction for $17.25 million to Massachusetts resident Pritam Singh. The 103 acres on Key West and Tank Island were initially offered to the City of Key West, but 12 years of negotiations failed to produce a satisfactory deal.

1986 – The Key West Citizen announced it was building new headquarters on Northside Drive, which would allow the newspaper to modernize and “leap forward into the computer age.” The Citizen planned to make the move from its longtime 515 Greene Street address in approximately one year.

1956 – The Tradewinds Restaurant in the pre-Civil War era Caroline Lowe House at the corner of Duval and Caroline streets in Key West was gutted by fire and had to be torn down. The blaze was set by an arsonist who destroyed several significant Key West buildings before he was caught.

1946 – Marathon was growing rapidly: Tourist accommodations were fully booked for the upcoming season, and “draglines, graders, rollers, bulldozers, and trucks were busy clearing ground for further development.”

1986 – Spurred by overwhelming neighborhood opposition to the plan, the Key West City Commission denied a request for the conversion of the former St. Stephen Church building at 330 Julia Street into a restaurant.

1935 – The most intense hurricane to make landfall in the United States struck the Upper Keys. 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 nearly 400 people, including many WW I veterans working on new highway bridges, and the destruction put the financially troubled Overseas Railroad out of business.

1927 – Two men, one from Bulgaria and one from Yugoslavia, were pulled from a fish oil tanker car carried on a ferry from Havana to Key West. The men were barely alive and covered in oily slime after having stowed away in the airtight tank for 12 hours.

1936 – Prompted by the hurricane that struck the Upper Keys the previous September, a representative for the Works Progress Administration was in Key West to survey school buildings, City Hall, and the County Courthouse in preparation for making them more storm resistant.

1946 – The Marathon Chamber of Commerce said the community had grown to the point that the establishment of banking facilities was essential, and the group was starting a movement to establish a bank there.

1937 – The Florida Keys Hurricane Monument on Upper Matecumbe Key was dedicated. The Monument was in memory of those who lost their lives in the Labor Day Storm of 1935, and the ashes of 23 of the victims were interred at the site.

1960 – A team of “petroleum technicians, tool pushers, drillers, and roughnecks” from the California Company arrived in Key West to begin drilling four 6,000-foot test wells near the Dry Tortugas and Rebecca Shoals.

1901 – City of Key West officials were looking for a new cemetery site, as the existing cemetery was crowded and there was not much room for new burials. It was thought any new location should be some distance from town for sanitary reasons.

1995 – The dilapidated structure of Key West’s famed Turtle Kraals Soup Cannery collapsed into the waters of the Key West Bight. The city rebuilt the building, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

1975 – City of Key West officials met with members of the Old Island Restoration Commission, and all agreed to an ordinance that would give the OIRC jurisdiction over the construction, repair, or alteration of structures in the city’s historic district.

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.