1911 – The average temperature for July was 83 degrees. The highest temperature was 90 degrees on the 26th, and the lowest was 72 degrees on the 31st.
1917 – All saloons in Key West were closed in accordance with President Wilson’s proclamation prohibiting the sale of liquor within one-half mile of a military reservation. The island’s bar owners submitted a petition for 30 days reprieve to dispose of their stock, but no answer was returned.
1930 – The Navy Department ordered that Naval Station Key West be put on “inactive” status and the functions of the Seventh Naval District be transferred to Sixth Naval District in Charleston.
1994 – Key West residents were overwhelmingly supportive of allowing Nancy Forrester to open her one-acre “Secret Garden” between Elizabeth and Simonton streets to the public. Over 1,700 petition signatures and 125 letters supporting a land-use change had been submitted to the Planning Department.
1995 – Captain Linda V. Hutton relieved Captain Jay Munninghoff as the Commanding Officer of Naval Air Station Key West.
1999 – Doris “Blue” Lunden, longtime social justice and peace activist, died at her home in the Sugarloaf Women’s Village. For decades, Lunden had advocated for lesbian, gay, and women’s rights, and those of the oppressed, generally. In her later years, she worked to prevent missile testing in the Florida Keys.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Frank Lewinsky’s saloon at the corner Duval Street and Smith Lane in 1917. Sally Lewinsky Young Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.