Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
June 8
1876: The village of Pemberville is officially formed.
1903: The Toledo Bee and the Toledo News merge to become the Toledo News Bee with a combined circulation of 44,000.
1915: A downtown Toledo drug store on Erie Street is raided by Toledo Police and the owner is arrested after reports that the druggist had been making and selling illegal heroin tablets from his pharmacy.
1929: It’s reported by the News Bee that future plans to build a new super- highway on the route of the old Erie Canal (Anthony Wayne Trail) will mean future development in upriver areas of South Toledo.
1933: A heat wave continues in Northwest Ohio as the mercury level reaches 100 degrees in Bowling Green.
1953: Deadly tornadoes hit the Toledo area, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds. Four people are killed in a twister near Temperance, Mich. while eight people are killed in rural Wood and Henry Counties.
1985: More than 600 people evacuated in North Toledo and 75 are injured in a warehouse fire at Willis Day.
June 9
1904: A crackdown begins on houses of ill-repute in Toledo’s “tenderloin” district after two 14-year-old girls are found working in the house of Lottie Barker on Lafayette Street.
1921: Two veteran Toledo policemen officers, Harold Mossburger and Harry Dowell, are killed in a shootout with a barricaded gunman at 611 Walnut St. Police squads later arrived and killed the suspect.
June 10
1933: In the mountains near Los Angeles, 20-year-old Toledo-born movie actress Vera Williams (screen name-Claudette Ford), is killed in a plane crash along with actor Harry Sweet. They were said to be scouting movie locations.
1930: Toledo’s decrepit Union Station is leveled by flames to the cheers of thousands. Toledo officials officially begin a campaign to force New York Central to build a new station in Toledo.
1961: It is the darkest day in Toledo firefighter history as a gasoline tanker truck on the Anthony Wayne Trail at Collingwood Avenue explodes and burns. The fire and blast kills four Toledo firemen and injures over 60 others.
1978: A railroad flare factory in Fostoria explodes into flames. Twenty- four people are injured as fires spread through city area.
June 11
1782: American Colonel William Crawford is burned at the stake at Tymochtee Creek by Wyandot Indians near Upper Sandusky.
1840: The Great Whig Gathering takes place at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg. Thousands assemble for the national event and nominate William Henry Harrison for president.
1897: Owney, the world famous traveling U.S. postal dog, is shot and killed in Toledo by police after reportedly biting a postal clerk. The beloved animal was mounted and stuffed the next day by a Toledo taxidermist and sent to Washington, D.C., where it remains on display at the Smithsonian Institute.
1920: A Wabash train hits a stalled car near Delta and kills five people inside. A 10-year-old boy who jumped from the car just before impact managed to survive the tragedy.
1943: Public daycare centers in Toledo are at capacity and in need of expansion as more women go to work to support the war effort.
1948: A 17-year-old worker on Catawaba Island is bitten by a rattlesnake on the finger as he bent down to pick up a stick on the ground. He is expected to recover.
June 12
1857: Convicted killer Return Ward, who was believed to be Ohio’s first serial killer, is hanged in Toledo for the shooting death of his wife, Olive, in Sylvania. Ward had been suspected in other murders in New York state before he moved to Northwest Ohio.
1880: J. Lee Richmond pitches baseball’s first perfect game for the Worcester Ruby Legs against Cleveland. It was a 5-0 shutout. It is said he had been studying all night and had no sleep and no food before he pitched the game. In 1890, he moved to Toledo and became a teacher at Toledo High School in Greek, chemistry and mathematics. He is buried at Forest Cemetery in Toledo.
1905: A Toledo probation officer, “Beecher,” is credited with effective punishment for young shoplifters by forcing them to personally apologize to shop owners as they return the stolen items.
1926: Italian race car driver Peter Phileppo, 23, dies in racing crash at Ft. Miami Racetrack in Maumee.
1931: Two Chicago National Guard captains are killed in plane crash near Toledo Transcontinental Airport.
1953: An earthquake of 3.5 on the Richter scale rattles the Toledo area.
1962: Toledo Police officer Donald Brown dies in the line of duty on a domestic disturbance call on 14th Street. His partner William Boyle loses an eye in the gun battle.
June 13
1894: As the economy bottoms out, a large group of Polish area men march into the Toledo mayor’s office to demand they be given work.
1914: The Toledo Zoo’s popular Indian-Asian elephant “Babe” becomes enraged and kills keeper Michael Raddatz in front of horrified crowd. Witnesses say Raddatz slapped Babe with a strap, which caused the attack.
1915: Perry’s Monument at Put-in-Bay is opened to the public amid great fanfare and ceremony.
1917: Three men are shot dead in Dickey Dee's Pool Room at 710 Washington St.. One of the victims was Dickey Dee, a kingpin in Toledo's Black underworld. Police say Dee was able to use his prized revolver in the shooting that he nicknamed the Colly Dee.
1920: Four Toledo children, from 3 to 11 years old, are rescued by the City of Toledo Steamer after being adrift for 24 hours in rowboat on Lake Erie.
1927: A motorcycle stunt driver jumps the guardrail and runs into the crowd at the Sheesley Circus at Detroit and Wolcott Avenue, injuring three people.
June 14
1895: A major drought continues in Northwest Ohio. 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 on Pelee Island. 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. Some Nauts’ family members contend it was a murder and not an accident.
1937: Fisherman on Lake Erie show off their 180-pound sturgeon they caught near Camp Perry in Ottawa County. It is one of the largest sturgeon caught in the 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.
