1900 – The cigar business at Key West was booming. Every steamship arriving from Havana carried tobacco, and over 2,500 bales had been brought in over the past two weeks. It was said that “all factories are working full hands, and the output increases every week.”
1923 – The Key West City Council authorized the $4,900 purchase of property in blocks 4 and 5 of Catherine Street for a park for the island’s “colored citizens.”
1924 – Work started on the construction of a causeway for automobile traffic from Key Largo to mainland Dade County.
1934 – While enroute to Key West from Miami, a disabled plane carrying a group of Federal Emergency Relief Administration officials, including Florida Administrator Julius Stone, went down in Biscayne Bay in three feet of water. Everyone got off the plane, waded to shore, and found a Pan Am flight to the island.
1954 – Construction began on the terminal building at the foot of Simonton Street for the Key West-to-Cuba car ferry City of Key West.
1966 – Captain Peter S. Knight, Key West native, was killed in action in Vietnam. Captain Knight graduated from Key West High School and the University of Florida.
1971 – The abandoned lighthouse at the entrance to the Northwest Channel, frequently referred to as used by Ernest Hemingway, was destroyed by fire.
2012 – Tropical Storm Isaac brushed Key West and the Lower Florida Keys with little effect on the islands, though it did cause substantial flooding to parts of the mainland.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The old Northwest Channel Lighthouse C 1970 before it was destroyed by fire. From the Ida Woodward Barron Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.