This Week in Toledo's past Week of 3/8/2021

March 7
1849 -The first bridge over the Maumee River at Perrysburg is wiped out by severe flooding.

1945 - Sgt. Alexander Drabik of Toledo becomes the first American soldier to cross over the Rhine River into Germany on the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. Drabik dodged Nazi bullets and bombs as he led a platoon over the embattled span. The son of Polish immigrants, he returned to his Toledo home as a national hero for his bravery.

March 8
1907 - Escape artist Harry Houdini thrills audience at the Valentine Theater when he manages to free himself from the so called "Oregon Boot" involving four handcuffs and a heavy piece of steel. His next act promises an escape from a zinc-lined piano box from Starr Pianos in Toledo.

1926 - WTAL, Toledo's first radio station begins on air testing with a new transmitter. WTAL would later become WSPD.

1947 - A report is issued by the city that elderly persons in Toledo are in dire need of housing.

1948 - An ammonia explosion at the Page Dairy on Wade Street kills two men and injures 27 others in the Wade Street area.

March 9
1822 - The first reported deadly bar fight occurs in the area. A man by the name of Sam Ewing is killed in a fight inside of a tavern at Roche De Bouef at Waterville.

1921 - President Warren Harding gets a gift of a dog from the Charles Quetschke family of Caswell Kennels of Toledo. The Toledo-born dog, a male Airedale is named "Laddie Boy" and becomes the first celebrity dog to occupy the White House. Reporters would write stories about Laddie Boy and the canine even had his own chair for cabinet meetings.

1929 - The old fairgrounds in Bowling Green between Conneaut Street and Poe Road are sold to the city to become a park and golf course.

March 10
1853 - The Perrysburg Journal begins publication.

1894 - The village of Cygnet is devastated by flames when a fire roars through the business district of that oil-boom town in Wood County.

1895 - The Toledo High School building in downtown Toledo is leveled by fire.

1918 - Damage and death toll mounts after a deadly tornado rips through Northwest Ohio from Van Wert to Tiffin, killing nine people, hundreds of livestock and leaving a wide path of destruction.

1936 - A grand jury is hearing evidence against two night clubs in North Toledo on Dixie Highway on possible "morals" charges because those clubs offer shows that feature cross-dressing exotic dancers.

March 11
1906 -A head-on locomotive crash occurs on the B&O tracks near Bloomdale, Ohio in southern Wood County. Two people are killed and 14 are treated at area hospitals.

1933 - News Bee reports that Gretchen McCullough of Toledo has been hiccupping for 56 days straight. Doctors at St. V's are "trying every known remedy" to end her misery.

1961 - Toledoan and Cuban revolutionary Captain William Morgan is executed by Cuba's Fidel Castro. Morgan had enlisted as a volunteer to fight with Castro's forces in 1958 as a revolutionary and quickly became a leader in Castro's army. However Morgan later became disenchanted by Castro's move to communism. Morgan's loyalty was questioned and he was executed for being a spy.

2002 - A potentially catastrophic hole is discovered in the reactor head of the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station in Ottawa County. Plant is shut down for over a year for repair.

March 12
1886 - The House of Corrections for boys on Broadway is burned to the ground.
1904 -A colorful character by the name of "Pick" Hoobler, a Waterville sportsman reputed to be the ultimate expert on Maumee River fishing predicts an early spring fishing season. Says the fish, especially black bass will be plentiful.

1928 - Citing a lack of formal charges, a Toledo judge releases 219 people from custody. They had been arrested at a speakeasy called the Graystone on Washington Street.

1937 - The city of Toledo ends the practice of using Toledo Police paddy wagons as ambulances after a 10 year injured boy dies in one of the wagons en-route to a hospital.

March 13
1905 - The Genoa Banking Company is robbed by safe crackers who use dynamite to get into the vault. They escaped with $3,000 in cash in a stolen horse and buggy.

1951 - St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Euclid Street in East Toledo is gutted by flames.

1957 - A hundred people are rescued by Toledo Fire Department aerial units from the upper floors of the Paramount Theater where they were forced to flee after fire broke out in the adjacent Hardy Shoe Building.

ToledoHistoryMuseum.org, 425 North St. Clair St, Toledo, OH 43604/419-215-2437