This Week In Toledo History

September 10
1813 - Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeats the British in the Battle of Lake Erie, fought near Put-in-Bay at South Bass Island.
1873 - At the annual “Fat Man’s Convention” held at Put-in-Bay, Joseph Templeton of Swanton wins the honors and a gold headed cane as the fattest delegate weighing in at 437 pounds.
1892 - World’s largest puffball found on the Sarnes' farm at Elmore, Ohio and is to be shown at World’s Fair.
1905-School board member Pauline Steinam says Toledo's kindergarten teachers are not required to have any formal education and are the "laughing stock" of the state.
1931- Movie actor Philip Baker Hall born in Toledo. Hall was known for his character roles as a comedic tough guy.
1948 - Mildred Gillars of Bellevue, also known as “Axis Sally”, during World War Two is indicted in the United States for treason for broadcasting Nazi propaganda from Berlin during the war. Later found guilty and sentenced to 10-30 years in prison.

September 11
1879 - Installers of the Bell Telephone say they now have 143 phones installed in Toledo. Wires are said to be strung across some areas like “spider webs”.
1926 - The Lion Store garage and 22 delivery trucks, fully loaded, are destroyed by fire.
1953 - Toledo morals squad crackdowns on pinball machine “gambling".
2001 - Four hijacked jetliners crash in locations in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people are killed in the attack. Many of the deaths occur at the World Trade Center in New York. Toledo reacts with horror and shock as the world stops and watches events unfold on television. Local government buildings are heavily guarded.

September 12
1910- Three railroad workers are killed in a train crash between Walbridge and Lemoyne when a passenger train went off the rails.
1919 - The headwaiter at the Secor Hotel’s ballroom, the Butterfly Room, bans the new dancing craze of dancing cheek-to-cheek.
1925 - Two young women plunge down an elevator shaft at the Berdan Building where they were working. One of the women, 21-year- old Kate Baker of Walbridge died within hours. Her co-worker and friend was critically injured. A third woman almost fell, but managed to grab a security bar and hung on.
1932 - Jobless and hungry workers in Toledo march on local grocery stores, stealing food in show of frustration and civil disobedience.
1933 - A man robs and murders a golfer, John Parker, at Sylvania Country Club in an apparent robbery on the 17th tee.
1959 - Toledo rock group Johnny and the Hurricanes reaches the "Top Ten" record chart with "Red River Rock" peaking at number "5".

September 13
1911 -A cavalry unit is ordered into rural area of Elmore to search for man who was reported to have taken liberties with a six-year-old girl.
1943 - Award-winning children’s writer Mildred Taylor is born in Jackson Mississippi. She later moves to Toledo and graduates from Scott High School and University of Toledo. Her second novel, "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry", won the 1977 Newberry Award.
1961-Former President Harry Truman visits Toledo and gives speech at National Exchange Club convention at Sports Arena.

September 14
1903 - Statue of late President William McKinley unveiled at Lucas County Court House. Thousands of people show up for the celebration.
1906 - Nine Italian railroad construction workers plunge to their deaths on the Maumee River when their hand car runs off the rail drawbridge at Ironville in East Toledo.
1929 - General Anthony Wayne’s Fallen Timbers monument and historical site is dedicated.
1962 -Toledo native Foy Kohler leaves for Moscow as he becomes the new Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Within weeks he would become the U.S. “point man” in Moscow as the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded.

1974 - Toledo Police Chief Corrin McGrath fires two warning shots at a man he found rifling through the back of his car. He is formally reprimanded for violating policy against the firing of warning shots.

September 15
1914 - Bowling Green State Normal College (later to become BGSU) is opened.
1920 - Baseball legend Babe Ruth plays an exhibition game at Swayne Field in Toledo.
1934 - The new Reptile House is dedicated at the Toledo Zoo. It was built by relief labor using salvaged materials from the canal locks, the Wabash Railroad, and the old Jefferson School.
1938 - The City of Toledo cuts off all relief money to about 8,000 people.
1967 - The Toledo Mud Hens win Governors’ Cup Championship of the International League for the first time.

September 16
1896 - Abolitionist and Toledo Congressman during the Civil War, James Ashley, dies of heart attack at the age of 74.
1927 - Toledoan Arthur Van Swearingen roller skates his way, 300 miles, to Terra Haute, Indiana from Toledo, sort of. The ardent skater says his feet began feeling like “hot irons” by the time he reached Ft. Wayne. And because of bad pavement, he took the train for the last 70 miles.
1933 - Search begins for missing mail plane along shore of Lake Erie. The pilot is found in the wreckage five days later, 100 miles off course in Michigan. Harold Neff is alert and talking when rescued, but dies two days later.
1959 - First edition of Oregon News is distributed on the streets.