This Week In Toledo History

October 27
1887 - Businessman and Toledo promoter Jesup Scott predicts that Toledo will become the "Great Metropolis of the West". A "future great city" surpassing Chicago and other major cities.
1931 - A festive ceremony takes place at the opening the new High Level or Anthony Wayne Bridge over the Maumee River. As a part of the celebration, 40,000 people walk over the span from West to East Toledo.
1946 - The USS Toledo, the Navy's heavy cruiser that bears the city's name is commissioned at Philadelphia. A special delegation of dignitaries is on hand from Toledo.
1951 - The tensions are high for the annual Bowling Green, University of Toledo football match up. After the game, a riot ensues on the streets of Bowling Green.
1952 - A milestone for Ohio, as ground is broken on this day for the construction of the Ohio Turnpike.

October 28
1895 - A spectacular blaze destroys much of the Wood County oil boom town of Mungen.
1919 - Four men are arrested in Toledo in the plot to kidnap Edsel Ford, the son of auto magnate Henry Ford. He was to be held for ransom.
1921 - Boxing champ Jack Dempsey returns to Toledo, where he won his title fight in 1919. He visits with friends and attends a football game at Waite High School.
1933 - Aviatrix Amelia Earhart stops in Toledo for a speech at the Palace Theater. While she is here, she paints an arrow on the roof of the Hillcrest Hotel pointing the way for pilots to the new city airport near Millbury.

October 29
1921 - Longtime Toledo Police detective Lewis Tracy passes away. He was best known as the officer who was in charge of keeping order in the so-called "Tenderloin" vice district of Toledo.
1929 - New York Stock Market crashes, many firms wiped out as stock fortune evaporate under heavy sell outs. Toledo and much of country in panic mode as recession fears are triggered.
1937 - District Fire Chief George Ehmann was killed while on a fire call when his car was struck by another car which failed to heed the warning siren.
1960 - Tragedy at Toledo Express airport. A Twin engine C- 46 charter plane crashes on take-off during a rain storm, killing 16 members of the Cal Poly football team and five others. It is the airport’s worst disaster in history.
The team from San Luis Obispo, California had just finished a game with BGSU and were heading home.

October 30
1891 - North Baltimore is ravaged by the “great fire” that destroyed 49 structures, leveling much of the town.
1920 - The new Empire Theater in Toledo announces that for the upcoming elections on Tuesday, they will stay open late and announce the election results at midnight from the stage.
1927 - Automaker Henry Ford visits Waterville’s Columbian House.
1929 - Point Place residents forced to flee and leave homes as rare winds push Maumee Bay waters over the Point area causing heavy flooding to homes and businesses.
1977 - The Wood County town of Grand Rapids holds its first Apple Butter Fest.

October 31
1900 - Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan speaks to crowd of ten thousand at Armory Park ball field in Toledo. His speech and that of Mayor Samuel Jones, are interrupted by noisy demonstrations of high school students opposed to Bryan.
1923 - Tragedy on Glanzman Road when 18-year-old Will Glanzman, trying to out-run a speeding Interurban does not make it and the train collides with his Ford truck. The son of the wealthy farmer dies instantly.
1928 - The new Woodward High School in North Toledo is dedicated.
1945 - Sixteen German POW's are killed near Blissfield, Michigan when their transport truck is hit by a passenger train.
1954 - Toledo Express airport dedication draws more than 35,000 people to the newly built facility that was constructed with local money and without any Federal funding.
1975 - Amtrak train service begins in Toledo. With one east and west bound train per day. First time in four years Toledo has had passenger rail service.

November 1
1903 - Ten-thousand people jam Calvary Cemetery in Toledo for All Saints Day services.
1915 - Funeral services are held for Henry Chapin, 80, founder of the Toledo News Bee who began publishing the Bee in 1876.
1926 - Toledo City council OKs purchase of 10 new police cars as search for the "Toledo Slugger" intensifies after murder of school teacher Lily Croy.
1928 - The Toledo streetcars to Point Place are replaced by buses.
1935 - Powerful East Coast earthquake shakes buildings in Toledo. Many residents in area of River Road report windows rattling and pictures shaken from walls.

November 2
1906 - At Miller Brothers Grocery at Summit and Walnut, oranges are 30 cents a dozen, dressed chickens are 12 cents a pound and beef pot roast is seven cents a pound.
1935 - Lakeshore Interurban crash with a car, four miles east of Toledo along Woodville Road injures 43 people, six of them seriously.
1941 - Christian Temple Church in Toledo burns a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf on the altar as congregation sings old hymns and the National Anthem.