Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
March 22
1865: The News Herald reports that the maple sugar taps are producing heavy amounts near Genoa, with 700 pounds of the sweet sap already produced.
1911: The powder house at the American Gypsum quarry in Port Clinton blows up. Six rail cars are destroyed and two workmen are injured.
1933: The end of prohibition is drawing near. President Roosevelt gives approval of the sale of 3.2 percent beer.
1969: A Toledo fire pumper truck, responding to a false alarm, collides with a car at Jackman and Laskey. One fireman, Louis Fuhr, is killed.
1973: Singer John Denver sets off a firestorm of criticism in Toledo when he sings the parody ballad, "Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio," on the Tonight Show.
March 23
1867: It is announced that Major Joel Elliott of Toledo, a school principal, has been appointed to the 7th Cavalry Regiment of General George Armstrong Custer. In 1868, he is killed in Custer's controversial massacre of a Cheyenne settlement at the Washita River in the Oklahoma Territory. Elmore’s Clara Blinn and her son are also killed in that same raid.
1888: Former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite of Maumee dies at his Washington home of pneumonia. Waite had been appointed by President Grant and presided over several controversial rulings during reconstruction following the Civil War.
1900: Toledo public school teachers meet and vote overwhelmingly against establishing a pension system. Those opposed to the teachers’ pension say soldiers and firemen deserve to have pensions more than teachers and policemen.
1906: The Catholic Societies in Toledo petition mayor Brand Whitlock to close the parks earlier and to add more lighting in the evening because "too much evil" occurs in the parks after dark, attracting unsavory and vulgar elements.
1915: Victoria Cadaract, the last known Chippewa Native American in the area, dies of pneumonia in Oak Harbor. She was born in 1828 and lived most of her later years in a humble cabin along Crane Creek on what is now Chippewa Golf Course, named in her honor.
March 24
1913: The worst floods in Ohio history inundate large portions of the state as water bloats rivers and streams. In Tiffin, 19 people die in the historic floods when the Sandusky River reaches record levels. Northwest Ohio's farmlands look like an inland sea. Food supplies are running short and in Ohio alone, 400 people have perished.
1924: Toledo police arrest an aging and legless man who had come to town from Los Angeles after he was pulled in a little red wagon by two goats. His name was "Knuckles." He sold cigars and other items to make a living. His goats were also taken to jail.
1931: Hollywood actress and singer June MacCloy, a 21-year-old Toledo native and Scott High School graduate, files for divorce from her second husband. The youthful MacCloy starred in numerous popular motion pictures in the 1930s after a brief stint on Broadway. She was considered one of Hollywood’s first “glamour girls.”
1975: Toledo's "Bar Wars" continue. This time, a night spot called the "Why Not Club" on South Erie Street was burned in an arson fire. The fire was just one in a string of bar fires that were allegedly set by rival "mob" groups.
1984: BGSU’s men’s hockey team wins the national championship in Lake Placid, N.Y. by defeating Minnesota-Duluth 5-4 in four overtimes.
March 25
1899: Brothers John and Paul Zeltner shoot and kill their lawyer in a Hoytville, Ohio courtroom over a $100 debt. They left the courthouse and held off a citizen's posse and angry mob in a day-long stand-off at their farm home. Several others are hit by gunfire during the ordeal. The Zeltner's are eventually captured, stand trial, and are sent to prison for 20 years.
1919: The streets of Toledo were crowded with cheering folks as hundreds of young American "doughboys" returned home to Toledo from the war-torn battlefields of Europe.
1923: City officials are expressing concern about the number of Toledo residents vacationing to Florida and then bringing home baby alligators.
1934: Future feminist and writer, Gloria Steinem, is born in Toledo. She graduates from Waite High School and goes on to become a writer and advocate for women's rights in the U.S.
March 26
1912: The Toledo Zoo announces that enough money has been collected to buy "Babe," a giant Indian elephant, from a zoo in Missouri. Babe at one time had been a circus elephant and would later become one of Toledo Zoo's most popular attractions.
1960: Genoa mayor Oliver Tester scolded a policeman who he said has brought too many Mexican migrants into his mayor's court for traffic violations. Tester said the police had to stop arresting only Mexicans, and that he should stop and issue tickets to all traffic offenders, regardless of who they are.
March 27
1924: Shocking news spreads from the little town of Harborview, when the mayor, L.H. Shovar, and four deputies are arrested by federal agents and charged with selling beer that had been confiscated from area bootleggers. The court affidavits allege that the mayor was selling beer from his courtroom.
1941: Eight workers at the Sun Oil plant on Woodville Road are injured and sent to the hospital for treatment after an explosion showered them with flaming oil. When the pressure exploded, it shook many homes nearby and some residents said it felt like an earthquake. Many of the victims were set ablaze when the oil came down on top of them and had to be rolled in blankets to douse the burning oil.
1957: A state investigation reveals that four notorious gambling parlors in Lucas County are being run by the Detroit crime syndicate. Those clubs, including the Old Dix Inn, the New Benore Club, and the Webster Inn are raided and padlocked. Investigators said the clubs featured dice and blackjack tables and were run "professionally."
1995: Owens Corning Corporation officials and area civic leaders break ground for the new World Headquarters buildings in the old Middle Grounds area by the confluence of the Maumee River and Swan Creek. The new campus-style complex replaces the high-rise Fiberglass Tower on St. Clair Street.
March 28
1915: Selma Newman is born in Toledo. The Scott High School graduate became Selma Rubin through marriage and moved to California, where she was an active environmental activist. She is considered the co-founder of Earth Day in 1970.
1920: Two Genoa women are killed when a series of deadly Palm Sunday tornadoes move across Northwest Ohio. Genoa becomes a disaster area as numerous homes, many on the northern and western edge of town, are torn to shreds. As many as 19 people are reported to have perished in the storms throughout region.
1930: U.S. Coast Guardsmen intercept three rum runner boats near Port Clinton and seize 20 cases of Canadian whiskey. They also note that bootleggers are now using floating containers so that when they throw them overboard, they do not sink. Local residents near the lakeshore are enjoying what the waves are bringing to shore.
