1861 – Supplies and a detachment of 62 troops from the First U.S. Artillery were landed at Fort Taylor from the steamer Daniel Webster to reinforce Capt. John M. Brannan’s company. The Webster then steamed to the Dry Tortugas with additional men and six months of provisions for Fort Jefferson.

1936 – E.A Pynchon, administrator of the Works Progress Administration for Florida, visited Key West to confer with local officials and to assess the sewerage work being done by WPA crews.

1872 – A correspondent wrote of Key West, “At the wharves you see the ugly hulls of wrecked vessels, which were formerly the main objects of trade in Key West. But this gloomy business is falling off every day. The few years of ocean steam navigation is curtailing that of sailing vessels, and the wreckers complain of dull times.”

1912 – Keys political leader Wilhelmina Goehring Harvey was born at 1400 Petronia Street in Key West. She served on the Monroe County School Board and the Monroe County Commission, and she was the first woman to serve as Monroe County Mayor.

1946 – The submarine tender USS Howard W. Gilmore arrived in Key West. The big tender was the long-running flagship for the submarine squadron assigned to Key West.

1910 – All the concrete railroad piers had been completed from Knight’s Key to Pigeon Key, and half from there to Moser Channel. To aid the progress, the camp at West Summerland Key was to be closed and the workforce moved to Pigeon Key.

1998  – Islamorada resident and fly-fishing pioneer Jimmie Albright died at the age of 82. He pioneered the use of fly tackle for catching bonefish and tarpon.

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

1938 – Toll receipts showed that 1,821 automobiles, carrying 3,632 passengers, had traveled the Florida Keys Overseas Highway over the Christmas weekend.

1940 – The Cuban-American fraternal order Orden de Caballeros de Martí began a three-day state convention at the Key West chapter’s lodge at 919 Elizabeth Street.

1930 - The Key West Woman’s Club, the Salvation Army, and the U.S. Army distributed 291 Christmas dinners to the poor of the city.

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.

1985 – The new Seven Mile Bridge and the Long Key Bridge, both completed in 1982, were suffering from structural problems. Guardrails on the Seven Mile Bridge were spalling, and elements of the underside were deteriorating. Issues with the Long Key Bridge required that a model of it be built in Tallahassee so engineers could conduct stress tests. 

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.

1957 – Construction started on the Blue Lagoon Motel at the corner of Sigsbee Road and North Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West.

1995 – Bicycling magazine named Key West the most dangerous city in the U.S. for bicyclists. Florida DOT Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator Dan Burden noted, “It’s 19 times more dangerous to ride in Key West than anywhere else in the nation.”

1985 – The widening of U.S. 1 to four lanes through Marathon began with the stretch between 105th to 122nd Streets. The entirety of the road, from 41st Street to Coco Plum Drive, would eventually be done across multiple phases.

2008 – Due to the year-long economic down-turn, Florida Keys marinas were struggling to fill slips. Many were on the verge of bankruptcy.

1960 – After five years of service, the Key West-Havana ferry made its final crossing from Cuba. The official reason for the suspension of service was a lack of patrons, but it also came as tensions were increasing between the U.S. and Fidel Castro’s new government.  

1962 – As tensions with Cuba increased, the FAA constructed a temporary control tower at Key West International Airport overnight. In addition, many military personnel arrived over the weekend.