1898 – The USS Panther arrived in Key West with a Marine Corps battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington.
1905 – Marcy B. Darnall and Thomas T. Thompson consolidated two newspapers, The Citizen and the Inter-Ocean, and published their first issue of The Key West Citizen.
1923 – Leonard Perez was arrested and charged with promoting a cock fight on Stock Island. Deputies found 75 people assembled at a ring on the island where fights were alleged to be regularly held.
1926 – Two miles of the new Key West Boulevard were completed. The 120-foot-wide boulevard started on the south shore at the end of Bertha Street and was to follow the water’s edge around the eastern end northern parts of the island, ending at Bayview Park. One hundred men were employed on the project.
1931 – A Monroe County grand jury issued a report to Governor Carlton alleging lax law enforcement by county officers. It stated that all enforcement was lax, with a general failure of action on complaints and that the criminal court was prosecuting too few cases.
1933 – Fire destroyed a drug store at the corner of Duval and Petronia streets. Many of the contents of the store were highly flammable, causing flames to spread rapidly. The building was owned by former Monroe County Sheriff Charles Dupont, the contents by Helio Renedo.
1939 – Movie Star Gloria Swanson and a group of friends arrived on the yacht Vidou. They were guests of Mrs. Wallace Kirk who took them on a tour of the city. Miss Swanson lived in Key West as a little girl when her father was stationed at the Army Barracks.
1941 – The Surgeons General of the Army, Navy, and public health services notified Monroe County Health Officer James Parramore that houses of prostitution in Key West must be eliminated. If local action was not taken, they threatened to quarantine every such house and arrest every person entering or leaving, or to station armed guards to prevent service men from using them.
1946 – Movie producer David O. Selznick and movie star Jennifer Jones were guests at the La Concha Hotel.
1968 – The new bridge between Big Pine and No Name Key opened for traffic.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The first Marine Battalion under the command of Col. Huntington in Key West on the USS Panther in 1898. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.