Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
May 31
1928: Crowds gather outside the Toledo police court, where 26-year-old Stanley Hoppe of Elm Street is charged with the murder of a seven-year-old girl, Dorothy Szelagowski. She had been kidnapped several days before and her body found a day later on the front porch of her Palmer Street home. Hoppe is found guilty and executed later that year.
1935: More reports surface that aviator Paul Redfern, married to Toledoan Gertrude Hillabrand, may still be alive in the jungles of South America after he vanished on a solo flight to Brazil in 1927. Despite many attempts to find him, he is lost to legend.
1939: The aquarium at the Toledo Zoo opens and is billed as the "largest freshwater aquarium in the world."
1960: The court of appeals upholds the conviction of Toledo businessman Bert Kaplan for violating “Blue Laws” by opening his Family Fair stores on Sundays.
1976: Kip Boulis, a Perrysburg policeman, drowns while trying to rescue a man and his four children in the Maumee River.
June 1
1840: Tavern keepers in Toledo report that a number of families have been passing through the area on their way to settle in the Northwest.
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.
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 Field. 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 a deadly cholera epidemic. More than 300 people die after being infected. The bodies of victims are set out in the streets to be picked up by wagons. Thousands of others are stricken but manage to recover.
1906: Hundreds of rats are removed from under Superior and Adams streets in downtown Toledo. So many rodents had burrowed under the bricks that it caused heavy street damage.
1923: Genoa car dealer, M.B. Rudes, is selling the new Overland Redbird for $750. The new English-type car has a rich Mandalay maroon finish.
1926: Toledo city courts are jammed with more than 140 men and women who were picked up for too much celebrating during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The News Bee reported that the group was a motley gaggle of unshaven drunks, vagrants and drunk drivers who were picked up at various times for a variety of crimes. Most were fined $5 or 10 days in the workhouse.
1929: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 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.
1940: A spectacular downtown fire erupts at the Home Furniture Warehouse at Jackson and Water streets on the riverfront. The sky was filled with dense smoke and the streets were lined with thousands of onlookers.
1965: Five people are killed when a 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 St., two people are shot dead by police and 24 others are wounded as police attempt to disperse the crowd. Mayor Schreiber calls for order and state troops to keep the peace.
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 Dempsey-Willard boxing match.
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 Ave. 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.
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.
1904: More than 6,000 Toledoans show up at rail station to get a glimpse of the Liberty Bell as the famous iconic symbol is taken on a train tour across the United States. The crowd gathered and many touched its weathered sides.
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 Taft and many notables are in attendance with a crowd of 10,000.
1940: The Cherry Street “White Way” festival is held to celebrate the new and improved lighting along the business district. Street dances, parades, boxing matches and other activities are featured for this all-day event.
1976: Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, 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, only to resume 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 for the 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 the immediate inspections of all Toledo meat facilities.
1908: Toledoans learn that the new bride of Chicago's mayor, Fred Busse, is a Toledo native. Josephine Lee, 28, was born in Toledo and had 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 18 defendants, including a priest and Wanda, 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.
