1836 – The thermometer dropped to 44 degrees, which was the coldest recorded temperature since the island had been settled.
1924 – Movie star Gloria Swanson arrived in Key West by train, enroute to Havana. She was able to see her childhood home at the Army Barracks along White Street, where her father had been stationed. She remembered that her first stage training was in Key West, when she appeared in several amateur plays.
1930 – The Key West Chamber of Commerce, which had requested use of a U.S. government airplane to help eradicate mosquitoes, was informed by Congresswoman Ruth Bryan Owen that the use of aircraft for that purpose “had not become a method acceptable to the government.”
1935 – General complaints of undeserving people receiving government assistance were coming in to Federal Emergency Relief Administration officials in Key West. FERA staff said names had to be provided before any action could be taken.
1961 – Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa, who spent the weekend fishing in the Keys, declared that “Key West has the most pleasant climate in the United States.”
1974 – The Navy declared 97 acres of Naval Station Key West and Trumbo Annex to be in excess. Congressional approval would be required before the land could be disposed of by the General Services Administration.
2000 – A Keys real estate agent became the first person to face criminal charges for violating Monroe County’s new vacation-rental ordinance after he rented a residential property in Marathon for less than the 28-day minimum.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Mosquito Control Plane spraying over Key West, ca. 1960. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.