Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
May 18
1825: A massive tornado rolls through Burlington Township in Seneca County, described by witnesses as a "violent fury that uprooted entire forests of large trees, hurled animals skyward and made the ground rumble beneath one’s feet." Three people died in the sparsely populated area of the county.
1882: The passenger ship, the “American Eagle,” explodes near Kelleys Island. Ten people are killed.
1916: The Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass company is formed in Toledo and will revolutionize the way window glass is made. The plant to make the glass is being constructed in West Virginia.
1929: Forest Park, billed as “Toledo’s Greatest Amusement Park,” opens for the season on Woodville Road near Genoa.
1937: Lamson’s Store in Toledo features a full bakery and is now offering chocolate eclairs for six cents each and a loaf of raisin bread for nine cents.
1944: Blind newspaper salesman John Madden of Toledo says he will soon have six sons who have gone into the service for duty in World War II. Five sons previously enlisted, including one son who died in a submarine tragedy. Madden, who sells newspapers in front of the bus station, wears five blue stars and one gold star on his coat.
1954: Black leaders in the city of Toledo hail the U. S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling to end segregation in public schools.
2001: Ground is broken for the long awaited $227 million Maumee River crossing project, which was later named the Veterans Memorial Skyway Bridge.
May 19
1889: Salem United Methodist Church in East Toledo is dedicated.
1904: Independent saloon keepers in Toledo ask the police department to start cleaning up the so-called “badlands” or tenderloin section of the city where houses of ill repute and saloons operate. They claim these places are morally unfit for consumers of liquor.
1926: Defiance police say an 80-year-old woman was wheeled into town on a push cart powered by her husband and son. Mrs. William Saxon said she was touring from Grand Rapids, Mich., but Defiance police wanted them to tour elsewhere and escorted them back to the Michigan state line.
1931: Toledo police officer Edward O’Briest is shot to death by an unknown gunman while on an undercover assignment in the 300 block of Moorish Avenue.
1947: The search for the Toledo couple wanted for the murders of two young boys comes to an end when they are apprehended in Iowa. Harold Lehaney, a community traction bus driver, and his wife, Florence, are captured and will face charges of murder in the killings of a two-year-old boy and his four-year-old brother. They had been left in Lehaney's care at their home on Bigelow Street.
1953: Toledo voters approve a 3.5-mill levy to build the new Toledo Express Airport.
May 20
1906: Ice dealers in the city of Toledo take heat from the Lucas County prosecutor for gouging residents with high prices. Housewives reportedly stop buying ice because the dealers’ tactics have hurt the poor.
1920: The outlaw gang known as the "Cowboy Hill gang" stages a daring daylight robbery on the streets of Delta. Residents were terrorized in the running gun battle as the gang had stolen 20,000 from the local bank. "Cowboy Hill" Joe Muzzio and his gang were eventually caught in a shootout with Toledo police.
1926: Toledo police officers and a gang of safe crackers have a gun battle in the offices of the Brundage Brothers Co. on Ottawa Street.
1930: Textileather Company on Stickney Avenue begins operations and will produce the first synthetic leather ever made in Toledo.
1931: Burroughs School in South Toledo is dedicated.
1956: Vice mayor Ned Skeldon suggests that Maumee and Toledo consolidate. Maumee residents and leaders are not pleased with the idea.
1961: Fourteen Indian bones and skulls are found near Wales Road in Rossford by four boys who were digging near the city dump.
1965: The Beach Boys play at the Toledo Sports Arena. The opening act is a Toledo band, the Vandaliers.
May 21
1904: Popular theater chain owner Frank Burt is shot by his wife in front his own theater on Jefferson Avenue in Toledo. Burt survives the shooting and tells police that his wife was jealous of a performer he was having an affair with. Mrs. Burt is arrested and dies six months later. Burt later marries the showgirl he was dating.
1913: Toledo newspaper readers get first look at the proposed new Toledo Club building to be built at Madison and 14th Streets.
1920: Three convicted killers escape by sawing through the bars of the Ottawa County jail at Port Clinton.
1931: A major fire occurs at the National Milling Company silos on Front Street.
May 22
1838: The first “mixed marriage” is reported in Toledo between a white woman and “Mulatto man.”
1852: The first steam powered train begins operation from Toledo to Chicago.
1893: Fire Engine House #1 at 614 Lagrange St. is abandoned by fire department. It is later used as a police substation and for mounted patrol.
1904: Seven people are killed in explosion of gunpowder plant in Findlay.
1925: Hundreds of area residents flock to the newly built Madison Gardens Ballroom (Madison and 15th) for its grand opening. The club was later renamed the “Trianon Ballroom” and became one of Toledo’s top dance and music venues during the 1940's and 50's.
1959: Interstate 280 is dedicated as the Detroit-Toledo expressway. It is the first so-called “expressway” in the area, was dubbed the "Seaway Freeway" and hailed as a key for future growth of the area.
1979: The groundbreaking for the Owens-Illinois headquarters is held along the downtown Toledo riverfront. It sets a new world record for the number of people taking part as over 5,000 Toledoans grabbed a shovel to help out.
1984: Violence erupts on picket lines of AP Parts on Matzinger Road as union members protest the company's use of non-union labor, while 120 people are arrested and jailed.
May 23
1908: An air ship piloted by Toledo's Roy Knabenshue crashes into the centerfield fence during a baseball game at Armory Park. Everyone escapes without serious injury.
1921: Future famous singer and Toledo resident Helen O'Connell is born in Lima. She grew up in Toledo and sang duets on radio stations around the area with her sister as a teenager. By 1940, Helen was considered one of the best female singers in America.
1944: Amid a dismal season, the Toledo Mud Hens suffered their most humiliating defeat in team history at Swayne Field, falling 28-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers. Newspaper writers dubbed it the “Granddaddy of all wallopings.” Half of the fans went home by the fifth inning.
1975: A National Guard F-100 crashes at Toledo Express Airport, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot.
1983: A major multi-alarm blaze at Willis Day Warehouse in Toledo forces evacuations of hundreds of people.
1988: Legendary UT football quarterback Chuck Ealey, who led the Rockets to three undefeated seasons from 1969-71, is inducted into the freshman class of the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame.
May 24
1854: Toledo council votes to hire "night watchmen" at $1.25 a night.
1894: Perrysburg school on Louisiana Avenue burns to the ground.
1919: It’s the last weekend in Toledo for legal alcohol sales before local prohibition goes into effect. Saloons and bars are jammed with customers eager to get last drink.
1934: The violent and stormy Auto-Lite factory strike in North Toledo turns deadly as Ohio National Troops open fire on the thousands of workers. Strike sympathizers and onlookers gathered on Champlain Street. Two men are shot dead and others are wounded in a clash that would stun the city and the nation.
1937: Six Toledo residents are arrested for harboring members of the fugitive Karpis-Barker gang in Toledo back in 1934. Specifically they are accused by federal agents of harboring the gang’s leader Alvin ”Creepy” Karpis and Harry Campbell, who had married a local woman and was making Toledo his home.
