1939 – The Navy Department announced that the long unused Key West Naval Station would re-open on November 1. The station was used to support ships engaged in neutrality patrols of the Atlantic and Caribbean.
1941 Will Doughtry of the Florida Keys Aqueduct Commission announced that the corner of Jackson Square at the intersection of Thomas and Southard streets had been chosen as the site for the aqueduct’s reservoir and pumping station.
1950 – Sam B. Pinder won the Monroe County Democratic special primary over Milton A. Parrott for Monroe County supervisor of elections.
1964 – Hurricane Isabel with winds of 80 to 100 mph caused minor damage in the city of Key West. The one casualty of the storm was a giant Spanish Laurel tree at the Oldest House on Duval Street.
1975 – Governor Reubin Askew reinstated Harry Harris as Monroe county commissioner. Harris had been removed from office when he was charged with accepting a bribe — on which charge he was acquitted.
1978 – Indian Key, which was the first county seat of Dade County but now part of Monroe County, was dedicated as a state park.
1989 – Hilario Ramos Sr. died at age 82. He was president of Lopez Wholesale Liquors and had been a founder of Florida Keys First State Bank and Boulevard Bank. He had been active in local, state and national politics and had hosted many dignitaries in his family home known as the Southernmost House at the ocean end of Duval Street.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library
Image: The Caroline Street Gate to the Naval Station, circa 1910. Florida Keys History Center, Monroe County Public Library. https://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/7841152686/