1833 – A fire started in the house of Captain Pardon Greene and destroyed the adjacent hotel and six of eight houses, together with the money sent to purchase the cargo of the Pulaski, which had wrecked on the reef. Loss was estimated at $50,000.
1845 – Dade Lodge No. 14 of the Free and Accepted Masons was chartered at Key West with O.S. Noyes as the first Master.
1900 – E.H. Gato opened a new cigar factory that made cigars using the mold method. The factory opened with a few hands but later expanded to 100 employees.
1900 – Mr. J.C. Conyers, a visitor from Kentucky, was found floating dead off Key West’s South Beach, apparently the victim of a robbery. It was reported Conyers had come to the island with a treasure map and had employed some local men to help him locate a buried fortune. The men could not be found.
1920 – The Key West Fire Department Board named Frank J. Roberts as chief, Ralph Pinder as first assistant chief, and Maitland Knowles as second assistant chief.
1923 – Frank Mastrajanni of Key West was fined $5 in police court for letting his horse roam freely.
1950 – The federal government offered 106 acres on Sugarloaf Key for sale to the public. The lots ranged in size from 8/10ths to 2 ½ acres and were restricted to use as homesites.
1985 – May Hill Russell, who guided the effort to build the Monroe County Library Public Library on Fleming Street, died at age 75. After her death the Key West Library was named for her.
1991 – Fat Albert, the tethered communication/surveillance balloon at the Cudjoe Key Air Force Base, broke loose and after drifting north was brought down over the Everglades.
1999 – Key West celebrated the grand opening of the city-owned Key West Bight Historic Seaport.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Key West Bight in 1996. Photo by Ty Symroski. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.