This Week in Toledo's Past June 19-25

June 19-June 25th
June 19
1896 – North Baltimore police officer Jesse Baker is shot and killed in shootout on Main Street.
1911 – Longtime Toledo artist William Henry Machen dies at the age 79. Born in Holland, Machen, world famous for landscape and animal paintings lived in Toledo. He is buried in Cavalry Cemetery in Toledo.
1924 – A family of six from Sandusky is killed when their car hits a Lake Shore Interurban trolley west of Genoa.
1938 – Ten-thousand people jam Toledo Municipal Airport to watch a demonstration of powered model airplanes.
1943 – Toledo Police raid the Cole Bros. Circus and round up 23 kids who had “run away with the circus.” The 22 boys and one girl were making $11 a week. They were ages 15-17.
1975 – Oil tank farm fire erupts into inferno in southern Wood County.
 
June 20
1911 – Three-thousand Toledo area women join the call and write letters to protest the execution of a pregnant mother, Angelina Napolitano, in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. The sentence of the condemned mother is eventually commuted to life.
1914 – A major blaze in a paper company factory on St. Clair Street injures five.
1949 – The “new” City Park swimming pool at City Park and Nebraska Avenues is opened for first time. Over 4,000 attend dedication ceremonies.
1955 – Last of the veteran housing projects in Toledo is demolished as the Woodsdale Veteran Housing complex is torn down, one of five city- owned temporary housing projects for returning veterans from World War II. That site is later used for Woodsdale Park and ball fields.
1967 – Future NHL hockey player, Pat Jablonski, is born in Toledo. The goaltender played for several teams between 1987 and 1998.
 
June 21
1890 – The Daily Sentinel first published in Bowling Green.
1918 – The new Mercy Hospital in Toledo opens its doors to patients.
1929 – Willow Beach Park at Point Place holds its grand opening, offering rides, picnic groves, a bathing beach and a dance pavilion. It was shut down in 1949 and later became the Cullen Park boat launch area.
1930 – Two people were killed in plane crash at Toledo Airport.
1941 – Publisher of Toledo Blade and other papers, Paul Block, dies at his home in New York City.
1985 – Lucas County Sheriff James Telb and team of deputies begin digging with backhoes for as many as 75 bodies the sheriff had been told were buried in satanic rituals in western Lucas County. Despite massive national media attention, nothing is found except for a few animal bones.
 
June 22
1904 – The News Bee is offering a special six-day excursion to the World's Fair in St. Louis. $21 gets rail transportation, six nights lodging, meals and tickets for the many big attractions.
1911 – In the “female help wanted” ads in the News Bee, there are numerous ads for “good girls” for housekeeping, three postings for local Vaudeville singers and two classifieds for “high class pianists.”
1927 – Toledo Mud Hens manager Casey Stengel inserts himself into the lineup of a championship game and hits the game-winning home run.
1943 – Race riots erupt on the streets of Detroit. Forty-three people are killed, and more than 1,300 people arrested.
1949 – Willow Beach dance pavilion at Point Place closes for good.
 
June 23
1890 – First public library opens at Madison and Ontario.
1908 – It’s announced that Toledo’s popular airship aviator. Roy Knabenshue, will race his airship against a team of speedy cars in a race from Toledo to Cleveland. The longest contest to date between these new transportation marvels of the 20th Century.
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 owner moves the team in-season to Charleston, W. Va., triggering a rancorous controversy and a lawsuit by season-ticket holders.
1969 – Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catches fire.
 
June 24
1906 – Toledo Police begin a “clean-up” of Canton Avenue from Jackson to Cherry. Newspapers report that patrolmen are under orders to arrest every “strange negro and negress” and anyone else who is suspicious.
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 glassmaker Edward Ford dies. Ford started Ford Plate Glass Company in 1898 along the riverfront and with it, the town of Rossford was created.
1936 – Clayton “Bad Man” Clawson, Toledo’s notorious “nitro” bandit, hangs himself in his cell in Ohio Penitentiary. Clawson used a bottle of nitroglycerin to threaten victims in numerous robberies. During his trial in Cleveland, he was gunned down by police in the courtroom when he pulled a bottle of nitro and threatened to blow up the court. He survived and went to prison, where he ended his life.
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 family home in Fremont at Spiegel Grove.
1906 – The Navy warship, the Wolverine is docked in Toledo Harbor to accept new recruits to the Navy. Recruits for apprentice seamen must be 17-25 years of age.
1923 – The once popular Hotel Hillcrest on Middle Bass Island is destroyed by flames.
1928 – The Sam Davis Health Camp for undernourished children in Toledo opens for the summer. At least 100 children will be sent to the camp.
1934 – Joe “Wop” English, convicted killer of bootlegger Jackie Kennedy, is given 60-day reprieve from electric chair.
1963 – Perrysburg Township Hall youth area called the “Bee Hive” collapses and is later torn down.
1969 – Explosion at Interlake Steel Co. plant on Front Street in East Toledo. Three workers are killed.