Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
June 21
1863: It’s reported that Captain Frank Rundell of the 100th OVI is home in Genoa on furlough for a while and will return to his unit soon. He talks highly of his men, many of whom are from the Genoa and Clay Township area. Rundell would later become a mayor in Genoa.
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.
1937: One of the worst rainstorms in area history sends a deluge of water and floods throughout Northwest Ohio. Nearly three inches of rain fell on Toledo in less than 24 hours, causing major flooding, and downing powerlines and phones. A Point Place boatman is said to have rescued 11 people from the storm-tossed Lake Erie. On Talbot Street in Toledo, many homes were flooded and Toledo rescue crews were summoned to help bring them out by boat.
1985: Lucas County Sheriff James Telb and 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
1890: Toledo’s 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.
1912: Huebner Brewery of Toledo runs a full-page ad in the News Bee explaining why beer offers so many “healthful life-giving qualities.”
1927: Toledo Mud Hens manager Casey Stengel inserts himself into the line-up of a tied game with Minneapolis and hits the game-winning home run. Fans at Swayne Field go wild and carry him around stadium on their shoulders.
June 23
1894: The Cygnet baseball team appears in court in Wood County to face charges of “playing baseball on a Sunday.” They were fined $25 and team manager Doc Tobin was in tears.
1925: The Ohio Public Service Interurban is offering Sunday round trip excursions to Cedar Point from Oak Harbor for $1.
1927: Luckey 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 his wooden leg.
1933: The first night baseball game is played “under the lights” in Toledo at Swayne Field. The Mud Hens beat the Columbus Red Birds 2 -1 before 8,000 fans.
1952: The Toledo Mud Hens move to Charleston, W.V. 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 the Ford Plate Glass Company in 1898 along the riverfront, and with it the town of Rossford was created.
1958: The city’s forestry department announces that the six-year battle to save the 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: A tornado sweeps through the Port Clinton area as hundreds of homes are damaged.
June 25
1919: Bert Miller of Point Place is said to be home from the military service after his famous 50th Aero Squadron helped find the so called “Lost Battalion” of the 77th Division that had been cut off by German troops in the Argonne Forest. Miller says he was the first to sight the battalion after they had placed white strips of cloth in the forest floor in a dot and dash code. About 200 soldiers were rescued in the ensuing hours.
1963: Perrysburg Township Hall, known as the "Bee Hive," collapses only hours before a planned youth event in the hall.
1969: A chemical tank explosion at Interlake Steel on Front Street occurs, killing three workers. 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.”
1906: The “Immortal” J.N. Free, one of the region’s most colorful characters of the 19th century, proves that he is mortal when he passes away at the state hospital in Toledo at the age of 77. For many years, Free traveled the nation, giving speeches and entertaining crowds with long and sometimes confusing oratory. He is said to have been a brilliant lawyer at one time, but by the time he was 40, he took to the road as an itinerant orator.
1908: Carrol Dubna, a young man from Toledo, dies mysteriously while he is walking near the Dorr Street Fairgrounds in Toledo. A coroner’s autopsy would later determine his death was not caused by a suicide attempt of carbolic acid, but rather by cyanide that was part of the polish he applied to his shoes that morning.
1922: Contractors report that new home construction costs in Toledo are soaring, at nearly $4,000 per home because of rising materials cost.
1952: Toledo is in the grip of a torrid heat wave as temps soar near 100 degrees. At least two deaths are reported.
1959: The St. Lawrence Seaway is dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II and President Eisenhower.
June 27
1845: A transportation milestone is reached as the Miami and Erie Canal opens a 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. The damage of $50,000 is thought to be started by electric wire.
1944: The first infantile paralysis case is 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, where officials say they will keep him, touching off an international showdown with Canada. The wandering sea lion is later returned to Canada.
