This Week In Toledo History
October 20
1910 - Hocking Valley Railway train enroute to Toledo derails near Upper Sandusky. Two women passengers are crushed to death and 14 others injured when cars plunge down a 15-foot embankment.
1915 - Lucas County Clerk of Courts John Kelly goes on trial for embezzling thousands of dollars from the county.
1922 - Tragic suicide story of 22-year-old Marie Wolf in the Tavern Hotel on St. Clair St. She was involved in a love triangle with jockey Willie Cohn from New York and another woman. She ended her life in Cohn's Hotel room.
1944 - Toledoans are stunned by news reports from Cleveland where a gas plant explosion kills 130 people.
2000 - Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for Fifth Third Field, the baseball stadium to be built in downtown Toledo for the Mud Hens.
October 21
1872 - Toledo businessman and futurist Jesup Scott deeds 160 acres of land to Toledo for a new university.
1883 - Woodlawn Cemetery in West Toledo is dedicated.
1958 - Ottawa River School in Point Place is dedicated.
1960 - Cuban Army Major William Morgan, "El Commandante" of Toledo arrested by Fidel Castro for espionage in Cuba. He would be executed two years later. His wife, Olga later moves to Toledo to live out her life and works to have her husband's name cleared and his body returned to the U.S.
1965 - Ten-thousand dollars worth of fur coats are stolen by thieves who broke into Lamson’s Department Store in downtown Toledo.
October 22
1908 - Giant mosquitoes, as large as houseflies, reported to be stinging people on the lips in the Findlay area. Two women stung the night before have had their eyes swollen shut.
1932 - President Herbert Hoover makes campaign stop in Toledo. More than 20,000 Toledo residents jam Union Station to see the President.
1941 - Colony Theater opens on Central Avenue with a special premiere event and celebration. Adults 35 cents admission, children 15 cents. The first movie shown is "When Ladies Meet" with Robert Taylor and Joan Crawford.
1950 - Miniature bronze “Statue of Liberty” dedicated in front of Camp Miakonda along Sylvania Avenue. Replica is 1/19 life-size.
October 23
1855 - St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo is started by the Grey Nuns of Montreal, Canada.
1926 - A 17-year-old boy bitten by a rattlesnake on Turner St. near his home is being released from the hospital. Second rattler bite in Toledo in about a month.
1941 - Toledo tugboat capsizes in Detroit River. Six crew members, three of them from Toledo, are drowned.
1953 - Toledo’s Metropolitan Housing Authority votes to end segregation policies within its housing units.
1955 - St. Francis de Sales High School dedicated on Bancroft.
October 24
1895 - An Indian burial mound opened on farm of writer Henry Niles, east of Toledo near the lake shore (near present-day Maumee Bay State Park). News accounts say 20 skeletons are discovered, sitting in a circle and around them are a variety of Indian tools, beads and pots.
1926 -Toledo school teacher Lily Croy is murdered becoming latest victim of so called “Toledo Clubber.”
1943 - Babe, the elephant, the Toledo Zoo's most famous animal suffers stroke and is put to sleep. His remains are rendered for wartime munitions. His skull is preserved and remains at the Toledo Zoo.
October 25
1902 - Typhoid outbreak reported on Lagrange Street between Erie and Huron. Residents say 15 people are stricken and blame the city for not keeping the sewers from backing up into water vaults.
1941 - The abandoned Interurban trolley bridge near Waterville returns to service as a highway bridge over the Maumee River, becoming a temporary span for the main bridge in Waterville that collapsed.
1960 - Rossford businessman Frank Emmick sentenced to 30 years in prison in Cuba after being convicted of espionage.
October 26
1867 - Three-year-old Lilly Bowers is abducted near Sandusky, reportedly by "Gypsies". After years of searching, she is found 14 years later, in 1882, living on the James Calkin farm in Genoa where she had been adopted and named Ida Bell Calkins. The Calkins family says an itinerant worker named "Jack" gave the child to them and they raised her as their own.
1926 - Police in Toledo round up mentally ill people as suspects in the "Toledo Slugger" murders.
1927 - Bread price war in Toledo. Loaves selling for five cents each.
1938 - The popular Walbridge Park amusements area on Broadway is devastated by a wind-fueled blaze that destroyed most of the rides, including the Speedway roller coaster and the carousels.
1960 - Vice President Richard Nixon speaks at University of Toledo field house during his campaign for president.
1966 -The American premiere of the movie El Greco is held at Valentine Theater in Toledo, featuring a live appearance from star, Mel Ferrer.