Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
June 14
1895: A major drought continues in Northwest Ohio as the Maumee River is running at a mere trickle, and most crops are ruined.
1905: The Toledo Police Department begins the practice of taking pictures, or mug shots, of suspects.
1930: Eight prominent Toledo-area businessmen and government leaders die in what appears to be a speedboat accident while on their way to the annual Elks picnic at Pelee Island in Canada. The mayor of Toledo requests that all area boaters go out into the lake to begin searching for them. The bodies and the boat are eventually found, but no final conclusion is ever reached on just how the "accident" happened.
1937: Fisherman on Lake Erie show off the 180-pound sturgeon they caught near Camp Perry in Ottawa County. It is one of the largest sturgeons caught in the Great Lake in many years.
1953: Thirty-thousand people attend Walbridge Park for the Ohio Sesquicentennial program in Toledo, featuring music, outboard motorboat races and speeches.
June 15
1921: Funeral services held for Tony Wroblewski, the first Toledo soldier to die in combat in World War I. Final honors are paid at St. Anthony’s Parish.
1926: The city of Toledo is drenched in a heavy deluge of rain and thunderstorms, causing flooding and heavy damage.
1943: Comedian Bob Hope does his national radio show from Camp Perry near Port Clinton.
1944: The Congressional Medal of Honor is awarded to Lucas County’s Lt. Robert Craig for his heroic actions in the war in Italy. The medal is presented to his father, William. The Craig Bridge would later be named in his honor.
June 16
1879: Reports from Tiffin say a woman there was completely disrobed when she was hit by lightning.
1919: Ohio ratifies a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.
1931: The Greyhound Steamer is offering moonlight cruises at Toledo for 50 cents.
1934: The area park board says the new park east on Starr Avenue will be called Pearson Park to honor George Pearson, the long-time Toledo Blade reporter who championed the site as a possible public park.
1953: Toledo comedian Danny Thomas appears at Toledo Zoo Amphitheater for a special event and receives a glass key to the city.
1963: A gun-toting duo ties two Toledo Police detectives to a tree and then steals a Perrysburg police car. They are later caught in dramatic car chase.
June 17
1850: Tragedy plays out as the Steamer GP Griffith burns in eastern Lake Erie. More than 300 people on board, including the Perrysburg captain and his family, perish in the inferno.
1931: A dark day in Toledo history occurs as the Security Home Trust bank in Toledo fails. It would be the first of six local banks to collapse in the Great Depression, resulting in one of the largest bank failure situations in the nation.
1945: It’s reported in Detroit that Genoa’s “Chicken King” farmer, John Reinbolt, was besieged by buyers of his chickens at the Detroit market. He says he sold over 600 chickens to famished buyers and even got “roughed up a little.” After Reinbolt shut down for the day, many hungry buyers followed him home to Genoa and cleaned out the 1,200 birds he had remaining on his farm. He was even forced to sell nine breeding pigeons to the mob that converged on him.
1946: Marcy Carolyn Kaptur is born in Toledo. She later becomes Toledo’s Congresswoman for the Ninth District of Ohio. She has been re-elected to congress for over 40 years of service.
1965: Toledo defense attorney David Schnorf, while attempting to show a jury that a supposed concealed weapon, or bread knife, was too dull to cut anything, ran the knife across his hand, only to cut his hand open and begin to bleed. The judge called a halt to the proceedings while Mr. Schnorf’s hand was bandaged. He said later, “perhaps I was too enthusiastic.” His defendant, charged with carrying a concealed weapon, was found not guilty.
June 18
1912: Toledo teacher Anna Stapleton is fired from her job at Hoag School when she complains that conditions at the school are unhealthy and have led to the illnesses of many children.
1924: The famous and aging Indian Elm tree is cut down in Maumee. The tree reportedly was used by Native American snipers to target soldiers at Fort Meigs across the river.
1933: Toledo native and movie actress Vera Williams, known as Claudette Ford, is killed with two other people in a plane crash near Los Angeles. The 20-year-old Libbey High graduate was on scouting trip for a new movie near Big Bear Lake when the plane went down. Williams had been seeking the fame of Hollywood for several years and had played a few small parts in several movies.
1935: News reports say that two area boys landed a 36-inch, 11-pound muskellunge while fishing on the Maumee River.
1975: The last edition of the Toledo Times is published.
1979: The General James Steedman Statue at Riverside Park is knocked over and left in pieces after it is struck by a car on Summit Street. The historic stature of the Civil War hero is eventually repaired and remounted on its pedestal.
1983: One Government Center Building is named for Michael DiSalle, the former Toledo mayor and Ohio governor.
June 19
1896: North Baltimore police officer Jesse Baker is shot and killed in a gun battle on that community's Main Street.
1911: Longtime Toledo artist William Henry Machen dies at age 79. Born in Holland, Machen was a world-famous painter of landscapes and animals, and he lived much of his life in Toledo.
1919: The Sunday School Association of Ohio votes to condemn the upcoming Dempsey-Willard boxing match in Toledo, calling it harmful to moral values and a desecration of the July 4th holiday.
1924: A family of six from Sandusky is killed when their car hits a Lake Shore Interurban trolley west of Genoa on Woodville Road near Forest Park. The car was traveling about 45 miles per hour when it hit the train, and the impact threw the car into a telephone pole. The family was on its way to Curtice to attend a family reunion at the home of Frank Nims.
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 "runaway with the circus." The 22 boys and one girl were making $11 a week and were aged 15-17.
June 20
1865: Toledo congressman James Ashley is reported to have met with President Johnson to plea for freed slaves to be given voting rights and “vows to crush any party or man” who tries to stop it from happening.
1908: Police Chief Knapp declares war on loose dogs, saying police are to shoot “on-sight” any dog running loose without a muzzle no matter how big or small or how fine the breed. The order comes after six people were bitten in past week by roaming dogs.
1918: The new Mercy Hospital in Toledo opens its doors to patients.
1924: The city of Toledo says the automobile deaths for the area has been unusually high for the week, with 11 people killed, most of them children. Toledo Police Chief Jennings is ordering that in some neighborhoods the streets should be roped off to traffic and playground equipment brought in so children can find somewhere to play safely.
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: The last of the veteran housing projects in Toledo is demolished as the Woodsdale Veteran Housing complex is torn down. The units were temporary housing projects for returning veterans from World War II. The site is later used for Woodsdale Park.
