August 4

1885 – The Cigarmakers Union went on strike at Key West, closing almost all the island’s factories. The workers were demanding uniform pay rates for different classes of cigar work from factory to factory.

1930 – The Navy Department ordered that Naval Station Key West be put on “inactive” status and the functions of the Seventh Naval District be transferred to Sixth Naval District in Charleston.

1936 – The owners of 169,000 acres of mainland Monroe County land asked the County Commission to assess the property at 25 cents per acre. This would make the land unencumbered by delinquent taxes and allow the owners to execute a plan to drill for oil without any hindrances.

1955 – A 26-year-old Navy man died of bulbar type of polio, the first death in Monroe County for the year from the dreaded disease.

1976 – After a dispute over zoning authority in Old Town, the Historic Key West Preservation Board passed a resolution stating they “shall not try to assume, interfere in, or infringe upon any of the powers of the governing body of the City of Key West.”

1994 – A Coast Guard Cutter arrived in Key West with 117 Cuban refugees after they had made a dash for freedom on an absconded ferryboat. The boat ran out of fuel 30 miles from Havana and was intercepted by the Coast Guard.

1995 – Captain Linda V. Hutton relived Captain Jay Munninghoff as the Commanding Officer of Naval Air Station Key West.

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Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Baker & DuBois cigar factory, 213 Simonton. Key West Equator-Democrat Trade Edition, March 1889. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.