1946 – In a special meeting, the Key West City Commission passed a resolution authorizing the purchase of the beach property at the south end of Duval Street. The purchase price was $37,000.
1954 – The Keys were undergoing a building boom. The permit for a two-bedroom $5,800 CBS home at Marathon was the 800th issued by Monroe County for new construction in unincorporated areas in two years.
1960 – President Eisenhower declared the Middle Keys a major disaster area because of damage from Hurricane Donna.
1989 – The AIDS crisis was taking a terrible toll in Key West, as the island city was suffering with one of the highest per capita rates of the disease in the country.
1994 – Pathfinders, a Key West bicycling advocacy group, was pushing for improvements of the North and South Roosevelt bike lanes, which were rutted with multiple cracks and cave-ins. They also wanted a small bridge over the Salt Run Channel to allow cyclists to cross the island without having to use Flagler Avenue or US 1.
2002 – Artists Rick Worth, John Mumford, and Michael Prolmos painted a 100-foot tall red, white, and blue ribbon with the phrase “Remember 9-11” on the side of the former Key West landfill known as Mount Trashmore.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Key West AIDS Memorial at the ocean end of White Street taken May 19, 2006. Dale McDonald Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.