Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
May 10
1933: Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli and several gang members are found guilty in the murder of Louise Bell, the girlfriend of rival mobster Jackie Kennedy. She had been shot dead in an attempted hit on Kennedy.
1937: A 22-year-old Evelyn Herzig of Toledo falls five floors from the new Secor Hotel and only sprains her ankle. Doctors are still pondering her miraculous survival.
1962: Ten people are killed and more than 45 people are injured in a massive chemical plant explosion and fire at the Maumee Chemical factory. The plant was located at Oak and Front Streets in East Toledo. It is still listed as the city’s deadliest fire.
1968: A major blaze at the Westgate Shopping Center destroys nine stores in the popular West Toledo shopping district.
1972: Anti-war protests widen as a pipe bomb explodes under a National Guard truck in Bowling Green.
1973: A tornado hits the Seneca County and Willard area. Five people are killed.
May 11
1901: Toledo police arrest a man they call "Jack the Clipper." He is accused of using scissors to clip the long locks of several girls and is later identified as 35-year-old Ross Mounts, a county clerk from Bloomdale.
1909: News articles are being published nationwide about the death of Toledo’s Alanson Wood, the inventor of the roller coaster. Wood is memorialized as the forgotten innovator of the “ride that made people scream.” He was 80 and died in poverty in Toledo.
1924: Moses Fleetwood Walker passes away. He was a former Toledo Blue Stocking player who was the first African American to play professional baseball.
1936: Toledo City Council votes to annex Point Place.
1940: Toledo’s city health commissioner says a scarlet fever outbreak is rampant with 94 cases reported.
1983: Construction gets underway on the new Maumee River historic excursion boat, the “Arawanna Princess.”
May 12
1855: Toledo fire crews battle one of the city’s first major fires as a large barn is engulfed by flames, killing the horses inside.
1894: The Elmore Bicycle Company moves its operations from Elmore to nearby Clyde in Sandusky County. The company will later produce the Elmore automobile.
1907: “Golden Rule,” a circus horse named in honor of Toledo’s former mayor “Golden Rule” Jones, dies as the Robinson Circus coincidentally happens to be in Toledo for performances. It is said he died from the so-called tobacco heart, after his long-time habit of using “chewing tobacco.”
1911: The Toledo High School track team earns high praise for winning the Northwest Ohio regional meet in Bowling Green. The young athletes took 10 of the 12 events.
1925: Toledo patrolman Walter Mullen is shot and killed by his partner during a pursuit of two suspects on Front Street as one of the bullets fired from his partner's gun struck Mullen.
1934: A car-train collision at the New York Central tracks south of Toledo leaves four dead.
1936: Led by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, agents in Toledo make a dramatic pre-dawn arrest of fugitive Harry Campbell in the 2200 block of Monroe Street, as he becomes the last member of the Karpis Gang to be apprehended. Campbell, who had been making his home in Toledo under an assumed name, was wanted as the partner of “Public Enemy No. 1” Alvin Karpis, a kidnapper and robber. Police say the woman he had married in Toledo had no idea who he really was.
May 13
1833: The first plot of land is sold in the early Toledo area known as Port Lawrence.
1852: The city of Toledo approves the establishment of a volunteer police force.
1903: Researchers claim to find the location where Colonel William Crawford was burned at the stake by Native Americans in 1786 near Upper Sandusky along Tymochtee Creek.
1930: Cowboy movie star Tom Mix and his horse "Tony" are in Toledo for circus shows at the Stickney Avenue Fairgrounds. He later stopped by the Toledo police firing range to try out his guns.
1938: Toledoans learn that Robert Gardner, a former Lucas County Sheriff from 1915-19, died at the age of 85. The East Toledoan was from one of the first pioneer families to arrive in Toledo's Presque Isle area.
1941: Lamson's Department Store features a special fashion show that exhibits fashions through the centuries, including a glove from King Tut and the gloves worn by Mary, Queen of Scots, for her execution.
1975: The Westwood Theater on Sylvania Avenue is ordered closed for one year after being found guilty of showing the films “The Stewardesses” and “Deep Throat,” which are ruled to be obscene.
1981: A Toledo police memorial honoring those officers who died in the line of duty is dedicated at Civic Center Mall.
May 14
1802: The Toledo-area’s first Christian religious service is held when Reverend David Bacon preaches to local tribes of Native Americans.
1842: The city of Toledo forms its first official school district.
1886: Convicted killer Arthur Glover of Wood County is executed by Sheriff George Murray Brown by hanging in Columbus. It was the last execution in Ohio carried out by the county sheriff of the county where the crime occurred.
1908: A riot breaks out on the campus of Ohio Northern University in Ada. A dispute between juniors and seniors results in juniors breaking into the armory and using rifles to shoot a senior banner to shreds and then forcing senior classmen to run a gauntlet of fisticuffs and insults.
1924: Genoa and Elmore residents are treated to a special site when the colorful Barnum and Bailey Circus train rolls through their villages, eastbound on the New York Central tracks early in the morning.
1926: Genoa area residents are getting excited about the announced opening of the new amusement park called “Forest Park” on Woodville Road. It was located just north and west of the current intersection at Woodville and Reiman.
1928: The Kalmbach Elevator in North Baltimore is destroyed by a fire.
1929: The New Elk Theater is blown up shortly after the last movie of the night. No one injured in the apparent mob hit.
1932: A road rage incident at Monroe and 14th Streets occurs when a pedestrian gets into a fight with two men in a car. One of them pulls a gun and shoots him three times.
1938: The last Lakeshore Electric Interurban makes its final run between Toledo and Sandusky. There is no special observance after 41 years of operation. Bus service begins the next morning.
1958: Christine Brennan is born in Toledo. She would become one of the most recognized sports reporters and writers in America.
1975: Linda Jefferson, Toledo native and star running back for the Toledo Troopers women's football team, is voted "Woman Athlete of the Year" by WomenSport magazine. The Toledo Troopers began playing in 1971 and were the league champions every year through 1979, with an overall record of 59-4.
May 15
1863: Several Southern Confederate Army “recruiters” apprehended in the northern states are executed by firing squad at Johnson’s Island POW camp on Sandusky Bay.
1902: Police arrest a white man and black woman because they were living together. Both are jailed and fined $20 each in police court.
1908: It's reported that a rabid dog bit 11 people in Maumee. All of victims will have to undergo a series of painful shots.
1912: The famed suffragette and long-distance walker, Minta Beach (also known as Mrs. David Beach), arrives in Ottawa County as she makes her way west towards Chicago in a campaign promoting vegetarianism. She eats only a diet of raw vegetables, fruits, and grains. She rested for a few hours in Port Clinton before making her way to Oak Harbor and then Toledo. She says she is five days ahead of schedule and is quoted aiming "to educate the people to the right way of taking care of their bodies."
1926: The safety building in downtown Toledo is officially opened to the public.
1929: An explosive fire erupts at the famed Cleveland Clinic and spreads through a hospital building, killing 125 patients and staff members.
1955: On a Sunday afternoon, some 5,000 people lined up to watch a mixture of gasoline, TNT, and napalm suspended on a 30-foot tower detonate and produce not just a deafening explosion, but a mushroom cloud that drifted over the scene and out over Lake Erie. The blast was the dramatic conclusion of a two-day civil defense seminar at Camp Perry.
1973: Toledo Mayor Harry Kessler calls the old Edison steam plant in downtown Toledo “an eyesore.” He wants it demolished and removed from the riverfront. It was purchased in 2014 and later renovated to serve as the headquarters for ProMedica Healthcare.
2001: A runaway train begins a wild 60-mile journey south on the CSX tracks that began in the Walbridge rail yard. The nationally broadcasted news drama finally ends when a brave railroad worker hops on the rolling locomotive and brings it to a stop in Hardin County. Dubbed the Crazy Eights incident, the moment later inspires the movie, Unstoppable, with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Jennifer Boresz, a former WTOL 11 reporter, had a bit role in the movie.
May 16
1855: The schooner, “Visitor,” sinks in a storm near West Sister Island. The captain goes down with his ship.
1894: Elmore residents say some strangers were in town selling rotten fish. They got out of town just in time before they were reported. The local paper warns people of the community not to buy fish from strangers.
1899: Large-scale tornadoes sweep through Northwest Ohio, causing many fatalities and heavy damage. The Montpelier, Ohio schoolhouse is blown down, killing eight students and injuring many others.
1904: A study by Toledo Public Schools shows that the vast majority of those who graduate from Toledo High School are from well-to-do families of the city, as the poor students are forced to drop out because they must work to support their families. The study also says the high school has become a social center for fraternities and sororities that often ostracize the poor.
1935: Safety director Price orders a “hoodlum squad” to start closing down all of the illegal gambling clubs in downtown Toledo. Three of the most prominent clubs are in the 400 block of Superior Street and have been running openly for months.
1947: The smallpox vaccine is rushed to the Fostoria area after a migrant worker dies from smallpox and others are exposed.
1953: Springfield Township firemen hold a stag party of 1,500 people that gets out of control at the Secor Armor. It was raided by Toledo police, and three women were arrested for indecent exposure. Others were arrested for gambling. Police said fisticuffs and chairs were thrown at officers before the men eventually scattered.
