This Week In Toledo History

September 29-Oct 5

September 29
1817-The Treaty of Maumee Rapids is signed with several major Indian tribes, opening up most contested lands south of Maumee River to White settlement.
1896 - Wood County courthouse completed at a cost of $310,000.
1917 - First football game played at Waite Bowl in East Toledo.
1923 - University of Toledo football team earns its nickname the "Rockets" in a game with Carnegie Institute of Technology when a sports writer says one of the UT players runs like a "rocket" and the name stuck.
1956 - The new LaSalle’s sign is being raised at Adams and Huron Street. It is said to be the largest sign in the city, weighing two tons.

September 30
1900 - Ottawa Park continues to show a huge increase in popularity as its noted in the local paper that thousands of people are turning out on the weekends to spend time in the park and the golf course is also very busy.
1918 - The City Health Commissioner says the deadly Spanish Flu is now present in Toledo with hundreds of cases.
1930 - Toledo, Fostoria and Findlay Interurban line is abandoned.
1932 - Crowds line up on Jackson Street at News Bee building to watch the World Series with the new “Play-O-Graph” system of mechanical graphics that allows audience to watch the series as it unfolds.
1935 - The Fassett Street Bridge over the Maumee collapses under stress of high wind. It is rebuilt only to be wrecked by a freighter in 1957.

October 1
1903 - A four-month-old baby boy is badly bitten by a baboon that was housed at an animal museum on Summit Street.
1912 - Ground broken for Perry’s Monument on South Bass Island.
1920 - Three armed robbers hold up the Ohio Savings bank on Broadway. They escape with about $1800 dollars but overlook $9,000 cash that had just been delivered to the bank.
1922 - The Toledo Maroons NFL team plays its first game against Evansville Crimson Giants at Armory Park in Toledo, winning 15-0.
1929 - Construction begins on long-awaited High Level suspension bridge over Maumee River. It would later be named the Anthony Wayne Bridge.
1931 - The Toledo Railway and Light Company officially changes its name to Toledo Edison.
1940 - Most Holy Rosary Cathedral on Collingwood is dedicated as mother church for Toledo Diocese.
1955 - Entire length of the Ohio Turnpike is opened to traffic.

October 2
1908 - Addie Joss, a Toledo resident, sports writer and pitcher for Cleveland Bluebirds pitches a perfect game. He faced only 27 batters in the win over Chicago.
1908 - Six people are killed in train collision near Bowling Green at Sugar Ridge. A freight train ran into the rear of a passenger excursion train that was returning from the Wood County Fair.
1920 - Coal famine in Toledo. Many families suffer from lack of heat and complain to mayor for help.
1932 - Congregation shocked when pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Toledo has jazz orchestra play instead of traditional church music.
1934 -Several Toledo teachers are accused by the school board of teaching “radicalism” and one teacher, Clyde Kiker of DeVilbiss High School, is reassigned to janitorial duties.
1940 -GOP presidential candidate Wendell Willkie makes campaign stop in Toledo, speaks to a crowd of 20,000 in front of Lucas County courthouse.

October 3
1907 -A car runs into a Lakeshore Electric train on Woodville Road. The Engineer and conductor are killed and 30 passengers injured.
1943 - First Italian POWs arrive at Camp Perry in Ottawa County where they will be imprisoned for the duration of World War II.
1955 - The end of an era as the former Mud Hens stadium at Swayne Field at Monroe and Detroit is sold to developers for a shopping center.

October 4
1822 - Rutherford B. Hayes, who would later reside in Fremont and become President of the United States, is born in Delaware, Ohio.
1903- National political figure William Jennings Bryan, while on a northern Ohio tour, speaks in Napoleon, Wauseon and Oak Harbor.

1911 - The Rev. Joseph Schrembs becomes first bishop for the newly created Toledo Catholic Diocese.
1934 - Well known Toledo gambling figure, Jimmy Hayes is murdered, and dumped in a Detroit alley.

October 5
1813 - Famous Native American leader in the region, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, is killed in the Battle of the Thames in Ontario Canada by American troops.
1941 - City of Toledo dedicates new $10 million Lake Erie water intake system.
1951 - Toledo hero of World War II Carl Winzeler, who lost both of his legs and one arm in the war, dies of a heart attack at his new Talmadge Road home which had been built by grateful citizens of Toledo for his service to the country.
1959 - Raceway Park opens as a horse racing track after being a stock car venue for 10 years.
1966 - Partial meltdown of Fermi One Nuclear Plant in Monroe, Michigan occurs. It is one of the first major nuclear mishaps in the United States.