1898 – Five bodies from the Battleship Maine were buried in the Battleship Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery.
1935 – The Federal Emergency Relief Administration’s strategy of reshaping Key West into a tourist destination was working – more than 30,000 people had traveled at least 165 miles to visit the island city during the past winter season.
1945 – Members of the families of three Key West prisoners of war – Pfc. Plinio F. Munoz, Pvt. Jack R. Hyman, Jr., and Leroy Young – were traveling to Miami for a “next of kin” meeting. All three men were being held in German prison camps.
1952 – The skeletal remains of Lelanette Roberts were found on Saddle Bunch Key. Miss Roberts had vanished without a trace on August 7, 1949.
1961 – The Key West Chamber of Commerce announced a new advertising campaign designed to increase off-season tourism. The program would be financed entirely by airlines servicing the island city and would target air travelers from northern cities, encouraging them to visit when rates were lower.
1971 – Racial unrest over the arrest of a 15-year-old led to two Key West buildings being firebombed. The Benitez Grocery at Simonton Street was damaged in an attack that may have been a distraction for the later torching of Padron’s Grocery at 800 Whitehead Street, which was destroyed.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: A ca. 1935 postcard of a watercolor painting of Rest Beach in Key West by WPA artist Richard Sargent. From the Otto Hirzel Scrapbook in the DeWolfe and Wood Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.