Sombrero Beach sales office in 1966.
1823 – There had been no rain at Key Vaca (Marathon) for many weeks and vegetation there was in a “perishing state.”
1861 – President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that Key West and the Dry Tortugas were under martial law, and the writ of habeus corpus was suspended in those places. Any person considered dangerous to the U.S. constitution faced removal from the islands.
1923 – Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Herman Albury returned from Miami with Charles “Bully” Cleare in custody. Cleare was apprehended after his fifth escape from the Monroe County jail, but deputies swore from this date on there would be no “next time.”
1925 – William Randolph Hearst was in Key West on his yacht Oneida. His two sons William Jr. and Jack and a party of friends were on board.
1938 – A tornado with winds estimated to 100 mph hit Pirates Cove Fishing Camp on Sugarloaf Key. A car was twisted around and thrown off the road, one small building was destroyed, and the camp’s solar hot water system was ruined.
1972 – After a six-hour debate at a meeting on Duck Key, the State Pollution Control Board lifted a ban on septic tanks in the Florida Keys. But permits for new tanks would be issued only if owners could meet four pollution control requirements.
1973 – Monroe County was awarded a federal grant of over $400,000 for the purchase of land for a waterfront park at Marathon. The 36 acres at Sombrero Beach was owned by Stanley Switlik, who had long wanted the property to remain open to the public.
1985 – The Monroe County Commission approved the plan to four-lane the seven-mile stretch of the Overseas Highway in Marathon.
1999 – Key West author and songwriter Shel Silverstein died at his home of a massive heart attack. He was 68 years old.
Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Sombrero Beach sales office during 1966. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.