This Week In Toledo

July 28 - August 3

July 28
1813 - British Army attacks Ft. Stephenson in Fremont, but is repelled by the American troops and the clever use of a cannon named “Old Betsy”.
1945 - One-hundred-thousand people see a spectacular mock battle as 1,000 marines and 40 Navy planes storm the beach at Riverside Park to demonstrate what American troops face in the war. There were flame throwers in use, and numerous dynamite charges.
1948 - Toledo men Robert Bauman and John Riddle, for second year in a row, win the Fort Wayne to Toledo canoe race on the Maumee River for the annual Aquarama Fest. Total time for the 135-mile journey: 25 hours and 38 minutes.
1958 - Pennsylvania Railroad says it will be shutting down three of its passenger routes out of Toledo to Pittsburgh, leaving only one passenger train a day.

July 29
1891- Explosion at sawmill in Cummings, Ohio (now a ghost town near Moline) in Wood County. Four men are killed.
1915 - BGSU (then Bowling Green Normal School) holds first commencement at a downtown Bowling Green theater
1940 - An arson-caused fire destroys the historic Horton Hall in Perrysburg’s downtown. The massive home of architectural merit was built in 1823 and believed to have hosted many important guests, including President Harrison and Daniel Webster.

July 30
1918 - The lion “Cleopatra” escapes from her cage at Cedar Point, Visitors are in a panic before the big lion is recaptured.
1959 - Work begins in downtown Toledo on the much talked about “downtown mall” on Adams Street.
1968 - Developers outline plans for the $30 million Franklin Park Mall in West Toledo with Penney’s, Lamson’s and Hudson's as the department store anchors.
1983 - Worldwide Auto Sales on Sylvania Avenue explodes and burns. Millions of dollars in damage reported.

July 31
1905 - Anna Krupyak, is beaten severely by several men at Put-in-Bay because they think she is witch. She is apprehended, banished from the island, and sent back to her home in Chicago.
1924 - Over 800 hooded Klansmen attend a rally in Oak Harbor. News Bee reports that many Klan members had their car tires slashed while they were marching.
1931 - Formal dedication ceremony held at Perry’s Monument on Put-in-Bay. NBC radio network carries ceremony live.
1963 - One of the worst highway tragedies in state history occurs when 10 members of the Felix Campos family are killed. Their station wagon is hit head on by a semi-truck as they attempted to pass a car near Genoa on State Rt. 51.

August 1
1916 - A camel given to the city of Toledo by Barnum and Bailey Circus dies an hour later after it is given a cold bottle of beer to drink by a city veterinarian.
1921 - Tragic day on Toledo streets for Toledo police. Patrolman William Kress is killed while trying to arrest man with a gun on State Street. He left behind a wife and six-year old daughter. He died on the third anniversary of wearing a TPD badge.
1928 - An angry farmer shoots and wounds two caddies at Toledo's Heatherdowns Golf Course who were hunting for lost balls in his wheat field adjoining the course. Farmer William Sharples is taken into custody and charged with assault.
1929 - A riot cuts short the carnival at Front and Consaul Street when a Waite High School footballer took exception to being called a “rube” by a carnival worker. A fight ensued and then more than 100 carnival workers and fellow Waite supporters began brawling.
1938 - Crash between two luxury passenger trains in Ottawa County; 38 people injured.

August 2
1899 - John Brown, Jr., son of the famous abolitionist John Brown, dies at his home on South Bass Island in Ottawa County.
1931 - Toledo native Kay Carroll, star of the "Vanities" Broadway show in New York, dies of peritonitis at St. Vincent Hospital in Toledo. The 25-year -old star, whose real name was Mildred Schafer Ryan, was home to visit her family and husband.
1940 - Toledo police raid several notorious gambling dens in the city. Twenty-five people are arrested and the gambling equipment and tables are axed.
1972 - Four dozen people, including 40 teenagers, some as young as 13, arrested at the Gigolo Club on West Central Ave. which is busted for serving underage kids who have been partying there for several weeks.

August 3
1795 - Treaty of Greenville signed as a result of General Anthony Wayne’s victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794, requiring Native American tribes to give up large tracts of land in Ohio.
1898 - Ground broken for the Ford plate glass factory in Rossford.
1945 - Toledo zookeeper Louis Durliat loses two fingers and a thumb when they are bitten off by “Bob” the chimpanzee while he was cleaning its cage.
1963 - "The General" the famous locomotive commandeered by Andrews Raiders in the Civil War arrives at Toledo's Union Station. Hundreds gather to see the historic train. Many of the Andrew Raiders' 19 crew members were from Toledo area.
1972 - Southwyck Mall on Reynolds Road opens for business. It would close 36 years later on June 29, 2008.