The Week In Toledo History Week of 9/13/2021

By: 
Lou Hebert

Sept. 12- 18

Sept. 12
1893 - Train engineer James Knapp of Toledo is shot and wounded during robbery of Lakeshore train by band of highwaymen between Toledo and Chicago.
1910 - Three railroad workers are killed in a train crash between Walbridge and Lemoyne when a passenger train went off the rails.
1919 - The headwaiter at the Secor Hotel’s ballroom, the Butterfly Room, has banned the new dancing craze of dancing "cheek-to-cheek".
1932 - Jobless and hungry workers in Toledo march on Toledo grocery stores, stealing food in show of frustration and civil disobedience.
1933 - A gunman murders a golfer on the course at Sylvania Country Club. Businessman John Parker is killed as the foursome is robbed by an armed man on the 15th tee. The killer is later identified as Floyd Sailor Baldwin and captured the next month.
1950 - Future Playboy model and actress Cynthia Myers is born in Toledo.
1959 - Toledo rock group Johnny and the Hurricanes reaches the "Top Ten" record chart with "Red River Rock" peaking at number "5".

Sept. 13
1911 - Cavalry unit and a large posse ordered into rural area of Elmore to search for man who was reported to have taken liberties with 6-year- old girl.
1933 - Two men from Toledo are shot and killed during the Angola prison farm riot in Brouillette, Louisiana.
1943 - Award-winning children’s writer Mildred Taylor is born in Toledo.
1953 - Fostoria welcomes Governor Frank Lausche as he cuts ribbons to open new system of railroad underpasses in city.
1961 - Former President Harry Truman visits Toledo and gives speech at National Exchange Club convention at Sports Arena.

Sept. 14
1902 - Toledo Auto Club is formed, someday to become AAA of Toledo.
1903 - Statue of late President William McKinley unveiled at Lucas County Courthouse where it still stands.
1906 - Nine Italian railroad construction workers plunge to their deaths on the Maumee River when their hand car runs off the rail drawbridge at Ironville in East Toledo.
1929 - General Anthony Wayne’s Fallen Timbers monument and historical site is dedicated.
1942 - Crooner Bing Crosby comes to Toledo to perform at the Commodore Perry Hotel and also performs for soldiers at Camp Perry near Port Clinton.
1962 - Toledo native Foy Kohler and wife Phyllis leave for Moscow as he becomes the new Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He would assume his new post a month prior to the tense Cuban missile crisis standoff between the U.S. and Soviet Union in October.
1981 - Former Toledo Mayor and Ohio Governor Michael V. DiSalle dies while vacationing in Italy.

Sept. 15
1914 - Bowling Green State Normal College (later to become BGSU) is opened.
1920 - Baseball legend Babe Ruth plays an exhibition game at Swayne Field.
1934 - The newly constructed Reptile House is dedicated at the Toledo Zoo. It is built by relief labor using salvaged materials from the canal locks, the Wabash Railroad, the old Jefferson School and from the old sidewalks along Cherry Street.
1938 - The City of Toledo cuts off all relief money to about 8,000 people.
1943 - Toledo Public Schools shutdown when three non-teaching unions go on strike against the school district.
1953 -The township of Oregon forms its first fire department.
1971 - Death claims the life of Toledo's Frazier Reams, Sr., former Ohio Attorney General, renowned Licavoli prosecutor and owner of WTOL-TV and AM radio.
1967 - The Toledo Mud Hens win Governors’ Cup Championship of the International League for the first time.

Sept. 16
1885 - Severe windstorm hits Henry County, causes considerable damage.
1896 - Abolitionist and Toledo Congressman during the Civil War, James Ashley, dies of heart attack at the age of 74. Ashley was also a Governor of the Montana Territory and was the builder of the Ann Arbor Railroad.
1933 - Search begins for missing mail plane along shore of Lake Erie near Toledo. Wreckage found five days later near Sandusky. Pilot later dies.
1949 -Philco plant in Sandusky begins producing television sets.
1959 - First edition of Oregon News is distributed on the streets.

Sept. 17
1909 - Four “tramps” picked up by Fostoria Police and taken to court and then ordered to be washed down with hoses and put in jail for five days on bread and water.
1927 - Medical mystery reported in Napoleon when coroner finds that the heart of man who died suddenly at the age of 29, was on the right side of his chest and not in the normal chest cavity.
1930 - Mrs. Edward Lamb of Perrysburg confronts city workers in her town with a rifle as they try to tear down her new white picket fence. The police return with a machine gun and proceed to remove what they say is an illegal fence.
1937 - Toledo's Centennial celebration gets underway with a dinner hosting 2300 people at the new Naval Armory at Bay View Park. The ceremony marks the start of a week-long observance of the city founding 100 years before in 1837.
1938 - Fourteen strikers are shot by guards on the picket line at the Federal Creosote Plant in Toledo. Two of the strikers were seriously wounded. Police say the picketers cornered the company guards and they opened fire.
1950 - Opening day of the new Union Station in Toledo. Many events are held, including the "sale of the first ticket", and music performances, jugglers, tumblers and acrobatic dancing acts, plus a special train trip around Toledo. The day kicks off a festive 5-day celebration of the new train terminal for the city.
1973 - Notorious Toledo gangster Thomas “Yonnie” Licavoli dies at his home in Columbus a few years following his controversial pardon.

Sept. 18
1902 - Toledo pioneer and well respected citizen, Elijah Woodruff’s 100th birthday party is held at Navarre Park.
1913 - Bodies of Americans and British killed in Battle of Lake Erie at South Bass Island are reburied in the rotunda of the thenl unfinished Perry’s Monument.
1930 - New concrete bridge over Maumee River dedicated at Napoleon.
1937 - Commodore Perry Statue is erected and dedicated in downtown Perrysburg.
1949 - Toledo police raid the Continental Club for gambling.
1951 - The war on slot machines gets serious. Lucas County Prosecutor Joel Rhinefort instructs County Sheriff George Timiney to confiscate and destroy all slot machines in Lucas County. Timiney promptly reports he can't find any slots in the county.
1970 - Toledo Police Patrolman William Miscannon was shot to death as he sat in his patrol wagon on Dorr Street. The man accused of the killing was put on trial twice and both times the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
1981 - Toledo real estate developer Peter Sawicki was shot to death near his home as he attempted to rescue his daughter during an attack by the notorious Cook brothers.

Column courtesy of Toledo History Museum, 425 N. St. Clair St. Open Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

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