This Week In Toledo History

This Week in Toledo's Past

June 23- June 29

June 23
1925 - The Ohio Public Service Interurban is offering Sunday round trip excursions to Cedar Point from Oak Harbor for $1.
1927 - A lucky landscaper. Charles Cherry, who has a wooden leg, was mowing the lawn at Bayview Park when the tractor seat broke and threw him into the churning blades. Fortunately only part of his wooden leg was sliced by the blades. He resumed work after paying $4 to repair the leg.
1933 - First night baseball game played “under the lights” in Toledo at Swayne Field. The Mud Hens beat the Columbus Red Birds 2 -1 before 8,000 fans.
1952 -Toledo Mud Hens move to Charleston, West Virginia in a rancorous and controversial move that triggers a lawsuit from season ticket holders.

June 24
1910 - County records show there are 659 saloons operating in Lucas County, bringing in tax revenue of over $350,000 a year.
1920 - Industrial leader and glass maker Edward Ford dies. Ford started Ford Plate Glass Company in 1898 along riverfront and with it, the town of Rossford was created.
1958 - City Forestry Department announces that the six-year battle to save the city’s Dutch Elm trees from an invasive beetle has been lost. All 30,000 of these stately trees in the city will have to be removed.
1998 - Tornado sweeps through Port Clinton area. Hundreds of homes are damaged.

June 25
1889 - Former First Lady Lucy Hayes dies of a stroke at the Hayes family home in Fremont.
1920 - A car full of “thugs” shoots a 7-year boy in a drive-by shooting in Maumee. Several men drove past some boys and started firing a handgun, one of the bullets struck the young boy who later recovered.
1963 - Perrysburg Township Hall, known as, the "Bee Hive" collapses. The accident occurs hours before a planned youth event in the hall.
1969 - Tragedy in East Toledo. A chemical tank explosion at Interlake Steel on Front Street. Three workers are killed as black smoke billowed and much of East Toledo was evacuated,

June 26
1891 - The Thurstin Quarry in Bowling Green is a popular swimming hole for the kids in town, but the sheriff warns that if boys don't start wearing more clothes, there are “going to be some arrests.”
1922 - Contractors report that new home construction costs in Toledo are soaring, nearly $4,000 per home because of rising materials cost.
1952 - Toledo in grip of torrid heat wave as temps soar to near 100 degrees. At least two deaths reported.
1959 - St. Lawrence Seaway dedicated by Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower.

June 27
1845 - A transportation milestone is reached as the Miami and Erie Canal opens link from Toledo to Cincinnati, allowing canal boats to travel from Toledo to the Ohio River.
1904 - The University of Toledo trustees decide that the school will have nine different colleges including a School of Pharmacy.
1910 - The Casino Theater at Point Place is wiped out by flames and may not be rebuilt. Damage was $50,000 and thought to be started by electric wire.
1944 - First infantile paralysis case reported in Toledo in what would become the polio epidemic.
1950 - Marlin Stuart pitches a perfect game at Swayne Field for the Mud Hens, shutting out Indianapolis 1-0.
1958 - “Cyril” a fugitive sea lion from London, Ontario, is caught in Sandusky Bay and taken to the Toledo Zoo. Zoo officials say they will keep Cryil, touching off an international showdown with Canada. The wandering sea lion is later returned to Canada.

June 28
1885 - A riot by parishioners at St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church on Lagrange Street over the suspension of a priest. Hundreds of local residents take to the streets in violent clashes. At least three people are killed and 20 arrested.
1905-The Greyhound Steamer encounters severe blizzard of Mayflies on Lake Erie. The 1,200 passengers were covered in them and the dead Junebugs littered the decks several inches deep.
1906 - Toledo police forbid parents to send their kids to local saloons to pick up of beer for the parents. One officer says the kids are being sent into “dives of iniquity” to fetch beer for besotted fathers.

1924 - Killer tornado hits Sandusky and Lorain. More than 100 people killed in Ohio's deadliest day for tornadoes.
1956 - An 11-day Shakespeare festival opens at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater, drawing 2,000 audience members for its debut performance of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
1988 - The baseball stadium at Lucas County Rec Center is renamed Ned Skeldon Stadium.
June 29
1905 - Toledo airship pilot Roy Knabenshue thrills thousands of onlookers as he guides his giant floating aircraft to a successful landing on top of the Spitzer building in downtown Toledo.
1921 - Registration advertised for University of Toledo summer session. Fees are $2 for residents and $6 for non-residents.
1925 - Nearly 100 undernourished Toledo kids are taken to the health department’s children’s camp at Presque Isle for six weeks.
1979 -Toledo Owens-Illinois executive William Niehous escapes his captors in the jungles of Venezuela after being held for more than three years. He makes it to safety and is flown back home to Toledo.