Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
April 27
1923: Famed British writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the author of Sherlock Holmes fame – attends a séance with Toledo psychic Miss Ada Besinnet. He calls her one of the best in the world.
1932: Tiffin sportsman, Frank Callahan, spends $1,000 to stage a funeral for his beloved Pomeranian pet dog, "Baby Ginter." Hundreds of curious mourners show up at his home to see the dog lie in repose in a $400 casket.
1966: A Chicago woman, Mary Matz, takes a taxicab from Toledo to Richmond, Calif. to see a doctor there because "she isn't feeling good." The 2,640 mile trip cost her $1,200.
April 28
1813: British, Canadian and Indian forces begin converging on the Maumee River to begin an assault on the American forces at Ft. Meigs in the War of 1812. The siege would last over a week with more than 160 Americans killed, until the British troops departed.
1911: The state pharmacy board claims that Toledo is the “cocaine capital of Ohio.” Rampant abuse of the drug is reported and numerous “coke” parties being held by teens.
1939: Professional golfer, Byron Nelson, becomes the head pro at Toledo’s Inverness Country Club. During his time in Toledo, Nelson would win a number of major tournaments.
1949: Unusual weather conditions create perfect “skip” conditions and some Toledoans see a baseball game broadcast “live” on their TV screens from KLEE-TV in Houston, Texas.
April 29
1913: A sad reunion is held in Toledo for the survivors of the Sultana, the riverboat that sank on the Mississippi River after the Civil War. More than 1,100 Union soldiers died in the disaster, many from the Midwest.
1947: Toledo Public Schools acquires $750,000 worth of war surplus used in schools, from machinery to a boxcar of toilet paper.
1949: Toledo city officials are given a demonstration of the soon-to-be-used traffic radar devices for catching speeders. Toledo is among the first cities in the nation to use radar speed guns.
1962: The “King of the Twist” Chubby Checker and Dee Sharp appear in Toledo at the Sports Arena.
April 30
1879: An actress at the Adelphi Theater is shot through the neck by a jealous husband at Hooper House hotel. He then shot and killed himself. Actress Lillie Ellis may survive her wound.
1908: The Horseshoer’s Union is threatening to strike in Toledo over increasing use of machine-made vs. man-made horseshoes.
1914: An army of women armed with brooms and shovels take to the streets of East Toledo as part of a larger campaign to clean the city.
1930: Esther Antin, a Toledo attorney, is getting besieged with marriage proposals now that her photo has appeared in national papers as the prosecutor in a scandalous murder trial of a Toledo woman.
May 1
1884: Baseball history is made in Toledo. Moses Fleetwood Walker plays his first game with Toledo Blue Stockings, as they host Louisville, becoming the first African American to play in a major league baseball game.
1918: Toledo's notorious "Tenderloin" neighborhood closes down for good. Thousands of its disreputable residents, workers and soiled doves are sent packing.
1959: The first ocean-going ship, the “Prinz Willem George Frederik,” docks in Toledo after using the new St. Lawrence Seaway.
1966: Rising lake levels flood much of the Jerusalem Township lakeshore area. Over 500 people get typhoid inoculations as a precaution.
1967: Lucas County Sheriff’s Deputy Herbert Wexler is killed in a two-car accident on Route 2 in Jerusalem Township.
May 2
1925: A Kelleys Island Lime Company sandsucker capsizes in Lake Erie and nine crew members drown. Two of the victims were from Oak Harbor.
1927: A festive grand opening is held for the opening of the new Wall’s Parking Garage on Ontario Street, promoted as the “The Most Beautiful Parking Garage in America.”
1962: The Dutch Elm disease is reported to be "out of control" in Toledo. More than 6,200 elms have been cut down so far, and thousands more may come down in the future.
1976: Toledo’s public radio station, WGTE-FM begins broadcasting.
1978: The long and bitter Toledo school teachers strike comes to an end after board members threaten to fire 3,800 striking teachers if they don’t return to school.
May 3
1838: The first church building opens in Toledo at corner of Superior and Cherry.
1903: Tragedy strikes a group of Polish tourists waiting for a train to Toledo when they are run over by a locomotive in Detroit. Nine people are killed, and scores are injured.
1919: Three rum runners are thought to have drowned as they tried to cross Lake Erie during a heavy thunderstorm. Their launch washed up on Toledo Beach with 60 cases of whiskey aboard, but no sign of the trio.
1931: Some 65,000 Toledo school kids are engaged in a weeklong city clean-up campaign, picking up rubbish, cleaning backyards, tearing down old buildings, painting fire escapes and eradicating fire hazards.
1966: WDHO-TV Channel 24 begins broadcasting in Toledo as city’s third commercial TV station. It would later become WNWO-TV.
