1845 – A writer from Key West noted that the island was hot and dull: “… everybody is complaining of heat – seeking the retirement of shade, and cooling their inward heat with the luxuries of iced syrup and soda water.”
1862 – John Bronson died of yellow fever, the first case of an epidemic that would claim the lives of 71 members of the 90th New York Regiment before it ended in October.
1875 – George Pincott, attached to the U.S. Schooner Matchless as a member of the 1st Artillery, died of yellow fever after having gone AWOL, gotten drunk, and laid about in an “infected area” of Key West.
1916 – John F. Gillias, an escapee from the Washington state penitentiary, was captured at the Jefferson Hotel in Key West after having arrived from Havana. Gillias was serving time for insurance fraud. Authorities in Washington were organizing his extradition.
1924 – The American Child Health Association reported that in 1923, Key West had the lowest infant mortality rate in Florida, with 61 of every 1,000 newborns dying. Miami’s was the highest at 110 for every 1,000.
1926 – Doctors Armando Cobo and Ramon Rodriguez opened a dental office at 506 Duval St. in Key West. Their practice offered the latest in X-ray technology.
1964 – The Monroe County Commission in a secret meeting approved plans to raze the 11-year-old county jail and replace it with a three-story structure housing a jail and courtroom facilities.
1966 – Twenty-five-year-old Captain Eckwood Solomon was killed in action with a Green Beret unit in Vietnam.
1977 – Monroe County was ranked 13th in all counties of the state in per capita income but had the highest cost of living in the state. Monroe County had a per capita income of $5,478 compared to Palm Beach, the state’s highest, with a $6,940 income.
1993 – Tank Island in Key West Harbor went on the auction block with an opening bid of $25 million.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The New York State Marker in Bayview Park for the soldiers from New York State who died in Key West during the Civil War. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.