Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
June 1
1905: James Winter, the caretaker of Oak Grove Cemetery in Bowling Green, is charged with misconduct after being accused of using profanity and shooting at a dog in the presence of ladies.
1931: Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, opens on Collingwood Avenue as the mother church of the Toledo Catholic Diocese.
1945: Chicago and Southern Airways opens service at the Toledo Airport, providing Toledo with air links to cities in seven states.
1971: Special ceremonies are held as TARTA officially takes control of Toledo’s long-held transit agency, the Community Traction Company.
1975: The "Poe Ditch Music Festival" is held at BGSU, drawing upwards of 45,000 fans for the all-day event held at Doyt Perry Stadium. The featured headliners were Johnny Winter, Pure Prairie League, Golden Earring, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Richie Havens and Styx. A thunderstorm, however, soaked the crowd towards the end of the day and some of the groups did not perform.
June 2
1854: East Toledo is hit by the cholera epidemic as 300 people die and thousands of others are stricken ill.
1906: Hundreds of rats are removed from under the intersection of Superior and Adams Streets in downtown Toledo. So many rodents had burrowed under the bricks that it caused heavy street damage.
1912: Six Toledo women are rescued after spending the night on a sandbar in Maumee Bay, where their sailboat ran aground.
1923: Genoa car dealer, M.B. Rudes, is selling the new Overland Redbird, the new English type car with a rich Mandalay maroon and finish, for $750.
1929: U.S. Supreme Court rules that Toledo can abandon the Erie and Miami Canal, thus opening the way to its drainage and the eventual building of what would become the Anthony Wayne Trail.
1965: Five people are killed when small plane plunges into Lake Erie near Port Clinton.
June 3
1919: Striking workers from Toledo’s Overland factory riot near the plant. Thousands of people are involved. In a confrontation near St. Hedwig Church on Lagrange Street, two people are shot dead by police and 24 others wounded as police attempt to disperse the crowd. Mayor Schreiber calls for order and state troops to keep peace.
1922: More than 170,000 gallons of so-called “medicinal” wine are confiscated by dry agents on the Sandusky wharf.
1933: Upton Weirick, the 85-year old “Corn Cob Pipe King of the West,” dies in Tiffin, after a colorful life in the Old West.
1937: Toledo’s Inverness Club plays host to 16 top pro golfers, including Sam Snead, Tommy Armour and Gene Sarazen, for the third annual Inverness Invitational. It is said to be the biggest sporting event in Toledo since the Jack Dempsey-Jess Willard boxing match on July 4, 1919.
1958: A major scandal in Toledo unfolds after a 17-year-old girl says she frequently “partied” with a dozen Toledo policemen and one fireman. Their names and phone numbers were listed in a little black book in her possession when she was found nude in a car with two marijuana cigarettes and a male companion.
1975: Retired Lucas County School chief, Glenn W. Schaller is stabbed to death with a kitchen knife in his home on Scottwood Avenue. A 17-year old girl is arrested.
June 4
1888: The Portage River near Oak Harbor catches fire from the upstream oil contamination in the Wood County oilfields.
1904: More than 6,000 Toledoans show up at the rail station to get a glimpse of the Liberty Bell as the famous icon tours across the United States. A crowd gathered and many touched its rusty sides.
1909: As a result of a summer rabies outbreak, Toledo enacts a “war on dogs,” assigning shooters to kill all dogs running loose in the city.
1910: Monroe, Mich. pays tribute to General George Custer as Custer’s widow, Libby, unveils the new statue to him in downtown Monroe. While born in New Rumley, Custer spent much of his youth in Monroe. Other family members lived in the Toledo area. President William Howard Taft and many other notables are in attendance with a crowd of 10,000.
1915: Home sites are offered in the Auburn Central Avenue area for Overland workers starting at $250, or $5 down and $1 per week.
1976: Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, the former governor of Georgia, comes to Toledo for rally at Woodward High School.
June 5
1859: A surprise drop in temperature to 24 degrees kills many crops in Northwest Ohio.
1929: Three firemen are injured in a spectacular blaze in East Toledo at Kasco Mills along the riverfront.
1935: A strike by Toledo Edison workers shuts down most of the city’s power grid, idling factories and darkening businesses. Public transit is crippled and some radio stations are knocked off the air. The strike ends the next day but resumes a week later.
1948: The Maumee River is crowded with hundreds of anglers of all ages as the annual white bass run starts to pick up.
1955: More than 500 school students play simultaneously on 150 pianos at the Sports Arena in Toledo for the 4th annual Ohio Music Festival. The sound was reported to be like a “giant music box.”
June 6
1906: In the wake of novelist Upton Sinclair’s scandalous revelations in “The Jungle” about Chicago meat packing houses, Toledo Mayor Brand Whitlock orders immediate inspections of all Toledo meat facilities.
1908: Toledoans learn that the new bride of Chicago's mayor, Fred Busse, is a Toledo girl. She is 28-year old Josephine Lee, who was born in Toledo but has been living in Chicago for several years.
1921: A trial gets underway in Toledo Federal Court for the Joe Urbaytis gang, accused in the Toledo Post Office robbery in February 1921. Hundreds of curious Toledoans jam the courthouse for the start of the trial as the 18 defendants, including a priest and Wanda, the sister of Joe Urbaytis, stand trial.
1937: The News Bee reports that over 100,000 people jammed the Toledo Municipal Airport in Lake Township for a major air show featuring a “bat wing” skydiver and other aerobatic stunt pilots and planes.
1962: Fremont judge John Bronson makes national news for paddling young boys in his courtroom.
June 7
1905: Barnum and Bailey Circus pitches the big tent at Hawley and Dorr Street. They feature a three- ring circus, three herds of elephants and shows with 500 horses.
1913: An “ice famine” is feared as the city ice handlers go on strike because employers refuse to sign a bargaining agreement. Citizens are forced to pick up their own blocks of ice from ice companies under threat of possible violence.
1917: Matthews Boat Company of Port Clinton says it will have 10 new U-boat chasers ready for service in the Atlantic very soon. Keels have been laid for most of them and have their ribs put into place. The U-boat chasers are reported to be very sturdy and can take the pounding waves of the oceans as they hunt for German submarines.
1926: Neighbors in the 100 block of Dartmouth Drive in Toledo awaken to gunshots to find a cross burning in someone's yard. They put out the fire and go back to bed.
1938: Revelations surface that union “thugs” have been viciously beating and attacking workers who refuse to join the union at the Pure Oil refinery in Toledo. The allegations prompt an official investigation.
1947: Two workers near Millbury report that small fish fell from the sky during a sudden downpour along Woodville Road. The bed of their pick-up truck was filled with them.
1983: The last Toledo City Council meeting is held in the safety building before city offices are moved to the new city, state and county government building across Erie Street.
