This Week In Toledo History

July 10-16
July 10
1934 - All beaches in Toledo along Maumee River and Bay are closed by health department because of typhoid bacteria.
1935 - Perrysburg man Irving Van Gunten arrested for working on his truck at home in violation of the town’s “Blue Laws” forbidding Sunday labor.
1949 -The annual Aquarama Festival underway in Toledo as more than 25,000 people crowd the downtown streets to watch the opening parade.
1979 -Most rainfall – 4.49 inches – in recorded history in Wood County.

July 11
1917 - Toledo police arrest suspected high-level German spy Baron Einrich Rolph Gersdorff at the Boody House after getting tip from Toledo’s German community. Police and Secret Service are investigating his frequent travels to the Willys Overland car plant.
1927 - The 135-foot wooden freighter, the “Clarence Lebeau,” burns in Maumee River.
1934 - Numerous German-American groups in Toledo file complaints about an anti-Hitler movie, “Reign of Terror,” showing at the Pantheon Theater in Toledo.
1936 - Mercury soars past 100 for third day, hundreds are sickened, three die from heat stroke and scores of animals die in stifling Toledo heat wave.
1942 - Toledo Mud Hens play a record 20-inning game. Called on account of curfew at 12:30 a.m. Tied 6-6.
1943 -Toledoan Lt. Robert Craig killed in combat in Italy. Later awarded the Medal of Honor.
2000 - Four-alarm blaze destroys the Vistula Heritage Apartments at Erie and Locust.

July 12
1844 - George Thompson hanged in Fremont for the murder of 18-year-old Catherine Hamler who had refused his marriage proposal.
1892 - The grand Victory Hotel opens for guests on South Bass Island.
1893 - Fire destroys several blocks of homes and businesses in Wood County town of Luckey.
1904 - Popular reform Mayor Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones dies of a heart attack in Toledo. Businesses close and body lies in state as city mourns the passing of the mayor.
1927 - Freight train hits Interurban passenger trolley at the Dorr Street terminal in Toledo. Three people killed and nine are injured.
1986 - Very strong magnitude-4.5 earthquake shakes much of Northwest Ohio.

July 13
1833 - First property transaction in Toledo as John Baldwin buys a lot in the new community of Vistula for $25 at Monroe and Summit Streets.
1897 - Five waterspouts witnessed near South Bass Island.
1905 -The largest roller rink in Ohio nearing completion at Ashland and Bancroft, measuring 175 feet by 85 feet.
1911 - Seven Toledo residents are feared to be among those trapped by raging forest fires in Michigan that have wiped out several communities near the Au Sable River.
1926 -The oldest man ever put in jail by Toledo police is arrested for the theft of a chicken. The 96-year-old man, James Hughes, says that at least in prison, he’ll get regular meals.

July 14
1904 - Double execution is held in Columbus for two brothers from Lucas County, Albert and Benjamin Wade, convicted in the 1900 robbery and murder of Kate Sullivan in rural western Lucas County. Ben Wade is reported to have said just before the switch was pulled, "Now boys, don’t burn me up. I want to be a respectable looking corpse.”
1955 - One of the grandest and most elegant homes ever built in Toledo, at 103 years of age, is torn down at Washington and 11th Streets to make way for a used car lot.
1971 - A 19-year- old West Toledo woman reports to police that she had been having sex with dozens of Toledo police officers at the Willys Park Pool after hours. Her story leads to a major investigation and suspension of numerous officers and dismissals of others.
1980 - Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan visits Toledo prior to start of GOP Convention in Detroit.

July 15
1849 - Toledo's first cholera epidemic breaks out. Over the next two weeks more than 100 people would die including the City Marshal and Postmaster.
1892 - Six Toledo City Councilmen are convicted of soliciting and taking bribes from area businesses. They are sentenced to $250 in fines.

1903 - Eight Toledo boys reported to have died from tetanus and lockjaw infections as a result of toy pistol and fireworks accidents over the Fourth of July.
1969 - The Princess Theater in downtown Toledo closes, leaving the Valentine and the Pantheon as the only remaining movie houses in downtown Toledo.
1973 - County Executive Ned Skeldon makes his long-promised swim across Maumee River after reaching goal of substantial cleanup of the river. Hundreds turn out to watch him swim from Walbridge Park to Rossford.
1983 - The first X-J Jeep rolls off assembly line at Jeep Parkway plant.

July 16
1843 - The last of the Wyandot Indians leave their Upper Sandusky native tribal lands on an eventual “trail of tears” to a new reservation in Kansas and Oklahoma.
1896 - Toledo Mud Hens are born. Team plays first game as “Mudhens” at Bay View Park outside of the city limits so they could play on Sundays. The team earns its nickname because BayView Park was a marshy area populated by "American Coots," often called Mudhens.
1936 - Dedication concert at the new Toledo Zoo amphitheater is held with the Toledo Civic Symphony, the forerunner to the Toledo Symphony. Toledo Police Inspector Charles Roth was the conductor.
1940 - Fire sweeps through an upper floor attic of St. Vincent’s Hospital, forcing the evacuation of 142 patients. Two Toledo firemen were overcome by smoke.
1959 - Eight Navy ships and thousands of sailors and Marines arrive in Toledo as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway Opening celebrations and festivities.
1972 - Joe Niekro pitches a seven-inning no-hitter at Skeldon Stadium for the Mud Hens.
1972 - Notorious Licavoli mob killer Jacob “Firetop” Sulkin dies at his home in Toledo at age of 80.