This Week In Toledo History Week Of 7/4/2022

July 3
1817 - Sea serpent reported by early settlers near Middle Bass Island.
1854 - First Perrysburg cholera epidemic death reported.
1909 - Swayne Field ballpark opens in West Toledo. A record 18 innings played between Columbus and Toledo.
1911 - Toledo Police Judge Austin agrees with a defendant charged with throwing a can of pickles through a trolley car window because the car wouldn’t stop for him. Man is released after judge says he too would be angry with the motorman.
1921 - Thousands of men swarm downtown Toledo near the News Bee building on Jackson Street to hear the results of the Dempsey-Carpenter heavyweight championship fight being held in New Jersey.
1945 - The much talked about “Toledo Tomorrow” exhibit opens at Toledo Zoo. It was a very large display model sponsored by the Toledo Blade publisher Paul Block, depicting a vision of Toledo by the turn of the 21st century. The model was designed by famed architect Norman Bel Geddes of Adrian Michigan and was featured in many national publications, drawing interest worldwide.
1948 – Toledo police officer Harold Stevens dies when his patrol car collides with ambulance at Monroe and 17th Street.

July 4
1865 - Three woman on a boating excursion drown in the Portage River when the boat capsizes. It was caused when the dress of one woman got caught in the crankshaft of the boat's motor.
1887 - Much of Bowling Green’s business district lost to flames, two acres of buildings destroyed.
1888 - First baseball game played at Speranga Field at Cherry and Franklin.
1868 - Cornerstone of first Wood County courthouse at Bowling Green is laid.
1894 - Commemoration of the new and current Wood County courthouse is held in Bowling Green. A Mr. A.B. Murphy delivered some of the oratory and declared that "Wood County is the garden of Ohio."
1896 - Large fire destroys much of Maumee’s downtown area.
1907 - New street car service opens from downtown to Toledo Beach amusement park. It is reported that 14,000 people take the scenic ride on that day.
1919 - Single greatest sports event held in Toledo on this day as boxing's heavyweight championship title was decided in a contest between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard. The fight was held at a newly built wooden arena at Bay View Park drawing thousands of fans who paid between $10 and $60 a ticket to witness the spectacle in which challenger Jack Dempsey won the heavyweight crown.
1929 - Vandals cut breach into the Miami and Erie Canal at Waterville and water from canal flows freely into Maumee River, effectively draining the nearly century-old water route.
1946 - The world famous “prison” museum ship, the “Success,” burns and sinks in harbor near Port Clinton.

July 5
1854 - Cholera epidemic spreads through Toledo area and Northwest Ohio, hundreds die in the ensuing weeks.
1914 - Park board officials want a plain-clothes detective to keep watch on animal exhibits at the zoo to arrest the “jokers” who are spitting tobacco juice in the eyes of monkeys and feeding stones to animals.
1920- More than 1,500 people gather for the re-dedication of the statue of Gen. James Steedman in Riverside Park following its removal from downtown Toledo.
1923 - Woman on Hamilton Street arrested for destroying an American flag.
1926 - Toledo Zoo animal keeper Louis Scherer is recovering from flesh wounds to the buttocks after being bitten by a black bear while cleaning the cage.
1935 - The Toledo Industrial Peace Board meets for first time to help settle labor disputes.
1949 - Three young men plead guilty to throwing firecrackers at animals in cages at the Toledo Zoo.
1952 - Tom Henricks, future space shuttle astronaut, born in Williams County. His family moved later to Woodville where he grew up.
1969 - Major rain and windstorm rake Toledo area. One of the worst such summer storms in history. Thousands of trees down, damage to buildings, power outages and flooding reported.

July 6
1921 - Heat wave continues in Toledo. One downtown lemonade seller reports sales of over 10,000 glasses in one day.
1923 - Los Angeles firemen who are touring the nation write letter to Toledo fire chief telling him that “Toledo has the most beautiful women in the country.”
1929 - Official ceremonies are held in South Toledo to celebrate the closing and draining of the Miami and Erie Canal. This event marks the start of planning and preparation for what would become the Anthony Wayne Trail.
1950 - Ground is broken for the Toth Elementary School in Perrysburg.
1973 - Holgate, Ohio native and actor-comedian Joe E. Brown dies at the age of 71. Brown, a Tony award winner, began his career as a vaudeville tumbler and baseball player before becoming a comedian.
1981 - Major excavation underway by University of Toledo researchers of ancient Indian village near Rossford. Village believed to be about 10 acres in size and has revealed many artifacts of a 16th century Indian culture.

July 7
1922 - Residents near Libbey High School stage protest against the stench and smoke-filled dump along Swan Creek at Hawley Street, where spoiled food and other debris burn constantly and are a health menace to children.
1928 - Charles Hoppe pleads guilty to being the notorious “Toledo Slugger” serial killer. He pleads guilty to the death of one woman and a seven-year-old girl. It was later determined that Hoppe did kill these victims, but was not the notorious “slugger.”
1933 - Local well-known bootlegger Jackie Kennedy gunned down near his home in Point Place by hit men sent by rival bootleggers in Toledo’s continuing Prohibition gang war.
1937 - Strike violence continues in Toledo against the Federal Creosote plant at Hill and Byrne, as strikers hurl rocks at a small army of guards brought in to keep the peace.
1939 - The last street car in East Toledo, the “Starr Avenue Line,” makes final run. Citizens turn out to watch and ride.
1954 - One of the first airplane hijack attempts is thwarted at Cleveland airport when a 15-year-old boy with a gun demands that pilot fly the plane to Mexico. He is shot dead by the pilot who was carrying his own gun.
1985 - Major fire and chlorine gas leak destroys a Willis Day warehouse in North Toledo, sending 65 firemen and police officers to hospitals and triggering 600 evacuations from nearby neighborhoods.

July 8
1862 - First "race riot" in Toledo history. This occurs when black stevedores working down on the docks want a raise from 12 cents an hour to 15 cents an hour. Mobs of angry whites attack the black workers leaving many injured.
1890 - Major fire levels buildings in Bairdstown in Wood County.
1924 - Council votes to tear down the Alhambra Theatre at Summit and Madison to make way for a five-story clothing store.
1932 - Marshal Jay Davis of the North Baltimore Police Department shot dead by armed robbers on village street. The gunmen embark on wild crime spree in Toledo, shooting a physician, then kidnapping a man and his son.
1953 - Toledo Safety Director William Kirk orders Toledo Police morals squad to start removing all contraceptive machines from local bars after complaints from the Catholic Chronicle.
1983 - Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee begins historic march on Campbell headquarters in New Jersey to demand union recognition.

July 9
1896 - Two Toledo men set transcontinental bike racing record, riding from New York City to San Francisco in 37 days, 14 hours and 30 minutes.
1901 - Round trip steamer passage from Toledo to Mackinaw Island advertised in local papers for eight dollars a person.
1906 - East Toledo councilman says they need more wells on the East side, that many people have to drink river water.
1917 - Michael Schilling of Tiffin returns from the dead. Schilling tells the Seneca County Coroner that he is alive and well, despite a body that had been identified as Schilling that was buried the year before.
1925 - Fort Meigs Hotel opens in downtown Toledo.
1938 - Sunningdale Golf Course in Toledo plays host to Ohio Public Links Tournament.
1950 -The first official “Music Under the Stars” concert debuts at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater with the Toledo Symphony.