1871 – Frederick Douglass arrived in Key West on the USS Tennessee with other members of the Santo Domingo Commission.
1881 – A man who intended to go to work and break the Key West cigar workers’ strike was assassinated. Three suspects were caught and jailed, though unionists threatened to break them out. A local militia was called to help maintain order.
1884 – The government coal shed at Key West, in which 400 tons of coal for the lighthouses and revenue vessels had just been placed, collapsed, along with the wharf it sat on. The coal was in the water but was expected to be recovered.
1898 – Two unidentified bodies from the Battleship Maine were buried in the Maine Plot in the Key West City Cemetery.
1929 – Fifteen train carloads of racehorses arrived at Key West via the ferry Estrada Palma from Oriental Park in Cuba. They were in addition to the 11 carloads brought in the previous night. The horses were to travel northward by train.
1946 – New “Homoja huts,” were being completed at the Naval Air Station on Boca Chica. This type of family housing was the Navy’s version of the Army’s Quonset huts.
1950 – The U.S. Weather Bureau moved from the Naval Station to the Federal Building at the corner of Simonton and Caroline streets. The Bureau also had a station at the airport.
1953 – The population of Monroe County was 29,957.
1970 – Bill Butler was named captain for the first-team Class A, All-State Basketball Team by the Florida Sports Writers Association.
1991 – The Winn Dixie Marketplace opened at the Overseas Market.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Quonset Huts used for housing at NAS Boca Chica circa 1950. Jeff Brodhead Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.