1924 – Wm. M. Butler, political manager for U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, bought 476 acres on Key Largo. The land included a 100-acre lime grove, along with grapefruit, avocado, sugar apple, and lemon trees.
1926 – Work on the new Overseas Highway was progressing rapidly, with nine miles of road surfaced in the past three weeks. With men working day and night, the stretch from one mile north of Key Largo Station to a point south of Rock Harbor had been done.
1929 – Ty Cobb, the famous baseball player, was in Key West on a fishing trip.
1946 – Former President Herbert Hoover paid a visit to the Naval Station while on his annual fishing trip to the Keys.
1953 – The first-ever arrest at Key West for possession of illegal, undersize shrimp was made by state conservation agent Joe Knight when he took Cullem Williamson of the shrimper Priscilla into custody for shrimp counting 85, 86, and 89 to the pound.
1961 – The beach on South Roosevelt Boulevard was dedicated and named for Florida Senator George Smathers. The Senator attended the ceremony, which was held on the beach.
1968 – Former President Harry Truman visited Key West to stay at the Little White House for the week.
1986 – The National Marine Fisheries Service issued an emergency ruling closing the commercial fishing season for kingfish in the Gulf of Mexico. Kingfish had been declared a threatened species.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: The Overseas Highway circa 1920s. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.