Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
May 4
1917: Future Toledo mayor Addison Thacher is shot and wounded in an attempt to stop a suspect holding the police chief at gunpoint. The bullet carved a three-inch furrow in Thacher’s scalp. He would survive and become mayor in 1932.
1934: Machine gun toting bandits, including outlaw John Dillinger, shoot four people in daylight bank robbery in Fostoria.
1970: Toledoans are shocked by the shooting deaths of four students and protesters at Kent State University by Ohio National Guardsmen.
May 5
1813: Hundreds of Kentucky militiamen, under the command of Colonel William Dudley, are killed during War of 1812 near the Maumee River by Indians who had lured them into an ambush.
1883: The first professional game of baseball is played in Toledo as the Toledo Blue Stockings defeated Bay City 5-4. The game was played at League Park at Monroe Street and 15th St.
1904: More than 8,000 people attend the launching of the passenger ship, Indianapolis, at the Craig Shipyards in Toledo. The launch was a “first ever” all women’s ceremony as women wielded the axes to sever the ropes sending the big ship into the Maumee.
1908: Toledo police officer James Boyle, an 11-year veteran, is shot and killed while questioning burglary suspects near the Toledo “tenderloin” district.
1919: Toledo’s first major auto workers’ strike begins at the Willys Overland and Auto-Lite factories, as 7,000 workers fight for better wages. Deadly violence and riots erupted days later.
1924: Toledo post office robbery suspects, Joe and Frank Urbaytis, who escaped from the Lucas County Jail in 1921, are recaptured near Columbus. Joe Urbaytis is wounded in a shootout with police, but recovers and is returned to Toledo for trial.
May 6
1932: Toledo residents are shocked by the brutal murder of a young woman in Old West End. Winifred Rafferty, a dietician at Robinwood Hospital, was on her way to work when she was attacked.
1945: The USS Toledo, a heavy cruiser, is launched by the U.S. Navy as CA-133 from the Camden New Jersey Shipyards. Many dignitaries from Toledo attended the ceremony and presented a silver tea set for the officers' galley as a gift from the citizens of Toledo.
1975: The Toledo Goaldiggers make Toledoans cheer as they win the International Hockey League championship and Turner Cup.
1983: Future television and film actress Adrianne Palicki is born in Toledo. She is, perhaps, best known for her role in the TV series, Friday Night Lights.
May 7
1902: Tragedy strikes on the Maumee River when seven young church members, on a Sunday school outing, drown when a tugboat hits their launch near the Ironville docks. The inquiry lasted for months and the funeral for the victims was the largest such event in Toledo history.
1915: The great British passenger ship, the Lusitania is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland. Two Toledo passengers, William Homewood and Larry Linley, were among the 1,100 who died.
1931: Singing legend Teresa Brewer is born in Toledo as Teresa Breuer. She rose to national stardom in 1950 with pop hit, “Music, Music, Music.”
1941: Willys-Overland shows off its first vehicle called the "Jeep". It is one of 1,300 prototypes being built for the Army prior to World War II.
1975: The historic Tiedtke’s department store on Summit Street erupts into a massive inferno of flame, destroying the building and several others. The blaze marks the fiery end of a long time Toledo retail tradition.
May 8
1843: The Wabash and Erie Canal opens from Toledo to Fort Wayne, Ind. The first canal boat arrives in Toledo, and the first canal boat leaves Toledo for Lafayette, Ind.
1930: Toledo police engage in a fierce gun battle with three members of the "Dorr Street Gang" at a farmhouse on Dorr Street. Over 30 shots were fired, and gangster Claude Allen is shot dead.
1945: V-E Day arrives. Germany surrenders. Noisy demonstrations and celebrations spill out into the streets of the city with honking cars and jubilant pedestrians.
May 9
1912: A dental curiosity is being studied in Toledo, as 400 dentists meet to see the silver filling in the tooth of six-year-old John Schnitker. A filling that Schnitker was reportedly born with, his dentist Dr. Lyman Zarbaugh says it is true and calls it a "pre-natal filling of psychic influence."
1916: There is an announcement that the new Bay View Golf Course will be ready for play soon. The nine-hole course will be the city’s second municipal golf course.
1969: Toledo Municipal Court Judge Clyde Deeds refuses to marry a 21-year-old couple in his courtroom because he says there was “too much levity” going on. He left the stunned bride in tears. Later Judge Reno Riley saves the day and marries the couple.
May 10
1933: Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli and several gang members are found guilty in 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 injured in a massive chemical plant explosion and fire at Maumee Chemical factory. The plant was located at Oak and Front Streets in East Toledo. It is still listed as city’s deadliest fire.
1968: A major blaze at Westgate shopping center destroys nine stores in the popular shopping district in West Toledo.
