1964 – The Florida cabinet authorized the construction of missile sites by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Boca Chica and Fleming keys. The permanent sites would be used as part of the line of defense against Cuba..

1949 – The Key West City Commission granted a lease to the Key West Charter Boatmen’s Association for a portion of Garrison Bight facing North Roosevelt Boulevard.

1940 – Author Thelma Strabel moved into her new Key West home at 400 South Street by the Southernmost Point. Strabel wrote the novel “Reap The Wild Wind,” a story about island wreckers that was later made into a movie.

1994 – Key Wester Frank Baing (aka the “Conch Salad Man”) died at the age of 93. Baing ran a Petronia Street a produce market, and in the 1950’s he began to sell food at Mallory Square. Baing was an icon of the early Key West sunset celebration.

1937 – The former United States Biological Station at the eastern end of Key West was sold to Julian Marks, who renamed the property Casa Roma.

1935 – The ferry Florida Keys left No Name Key at 8 a.m., and two hours later the ferry Key West departed Lower Matecumbe Key, both resuming regular service for the Overseas Highway for the first time since the destruction of the Labor Day Hurricane.

2004 – The State of Florida agreed to buy the Harris School on Southard Street in Key West under its “Florida Forever” program. The plan was to lease the historic property to the Rodel Foundation and The Studios of Key West as an art colony, with Rodel agreeing to restore the building. The Monroe County School District had not decided whether to accept the offer.

1875 - Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, son of a Cuban revolutionary leader of the same name, was elected Mayor of Key West. The younger de Cespedes also served as president of the Revolutionary Club of Key West and would himself be a fighter for Cuba’s independence from Spain.

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.

1994 – More than 17,000 Cuban refugees had crossed the Florida Straits during the month. It was the largest Cuban exodus since the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

1863 – One hundred sixty-five masons and laborers had recently arrived at Key West to work on the East and West Martello Towers, though some of the force was dispatched to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas for work there.

1946 – After being re-tested, the waters of South Beach in Key West were declared safe and free of all disease germs. Staff from the Navy Hospital had issued a warning earlier in the week saying the beach was contaminated, unsafe for bathing, and off-limits to Navy personnel.

1945 – The northern portion of Lower Matecumbe Key, comprising 352 acres, was sold for $56,250 to a development group through Marathon realtor W.A. Parrish. The southern portion of the key had been purchased a few weeks before for the same price, meaning that in the two transactions the entirety of Lower Matecumbe sold for $112,500.

2011 – Islamorada’s Cheeca Lodge was purchased for $100 million by a subsidiary of New York-based Northwood Investors. In 2003, the property had sold for $33 million.

1990 – Key West Mayor Tony Tarracino and Corrine Crockett of Blue Heaven, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, cut the ribbon for the first Bahama Village Caribbean Festival. Musician Coffee Butler provided live entertainment, and island food and handicrafts were available along Petronia Street. Similar festivals were planned for the first Sunday of every month.

1957 – A Pan American Airways flag that flew over the airline’s first facility at Key West was presented to the Monroe County Commission by James A. Robbins of Clearwater, who had kept the banner for almost 30 years. The commissioners voted to ask the Pan American company to display it at their new offices.

1963 – Entomologists were zeroing in a species of whitefly recently found on Stock Island as the spreader of a lethal yellowing virus that was destroying coconut palms. Since its first appearance in Key West in 1954, the disease had killed 80% of Lower Keys coconut trees.

1951 – A new concrete tennis court was opened at Key West’s Bayview Park, complementing two existing asphalt courts.

1975 – Spurred by recent national press coverage, local interest was renewed in the Japanese “Midget C” submarine displayed in Key West.

The 1733 wreck of a Spanish treasure fleet off the Keys led to some of the first English-language newspaper reporting about the islands.