This Week In Toledo History

Feb. 26
1887 - Large oil discoveries reported in Northwest Ohio. More wells are struck. One in North Baltimore said to be a gusher producing 1,200 barrels a day.
1895 - Inventor Michael Owens of Toledo patents glass blowing machine, a move that would alter the course of history for Toledo as it helped put Toledo on the map as "The Glass Capital of the World.”
1916 - State Game Warden outlaws use of nets to catch fish in the Maumee River.
1928 - Large crude oil explosions reported at Sun Oil refinery in Toledo. Thousands of people pour out of the homes to watch the spectacle.

Feb. 27
1901- A man who had his case dismissed in Toledo police court comes back to courtroom with a guitar. He serenades judge and spectators with several songs of the South.
1919 - Toledo motorcycle policeman is run over by street car on Indiana Street. He is dragged 65 feet and survives, but his clothes were pulled off during the ordeal.He climbs a nearby tree to hide, but yells to passersby that he needs a pair of pants.
1935 - Thousands of women attend an all-day cooking school at Paramount Theater in downtown Toledo.
1972 - Toledo native Pat Brady who played as comic sidekick on the Roy Rogers TV show dies at the age of 58 in Colorado. Brady, who was born in Toledo, appeared in the popular Roy Rogers Show, driving his Jeep, named Nelly-Belle.
1976 - Owens-Illinois executive, Toledoan William Niehous is kidnapped from his home in Caracas, Venezuela by terrorists. Ransom demands are made and while some of them are met, Niehous was not returned. Many feared he had been killed, but three years after his capture, in 1979, Niehous makes a daring and successful escape from his jungle prison and returns to Toledo.

Feb. 28
1900 - Massive blizzard paralyzes Toledo area with 20 inches of snow reported. Mail and passenger trains are snowbound. All able-bodied men are being called to help clear roadways.
1903 - Albert Wade is found guilty of murdering Kate Sullivan in the farm home she shared with her sister just west of Toledo in a dramatic trial. Wade's brother, Ben, also found guilty in the attack. Both die in electric chair the next year.
1912 - Sandusky County town of Bettsville wiped out by massive blaze that levels most of the downtown area.
1983 - Millions of Americans watch final episode of the hit TV show “M*A*S*H,” which made Toledo’s Jamie Farr and Packo’s hot dogs nationally famous. Big viewing party is held at Packo’s in East Toledo.

March 1
1803 - Ohio admitted to the Union.
1904 - Major flooding on Maumee River from Fort Wayne to Toledo. Waterville bridge taken out by ice jams.
1906 - Frances Goodell of Bowling Green reports she has now found three pearls in the last weeks while shucking freshwater oysters (clams). The last one she found on Saturday was as big as a pea. She says it is perfect in color and she plans on having the three pearls set in a piece of jewelry.
1926 - Seventeen people under arrest after “rum runners war” erupts into gun battle and beatings on streets of downtown Toledo and Old West End.
1947 - Tom Sholz of music group "Boston" is born in Toledo.
1957 - A "berserk" gunman opens fire and wounds two Toledo policemen and two women at a home in 600 block of Norwood, before turning the gun on himself.

March 2
1846 - First school opens in Perrysburg.
1849 - Well-known pioneer Isaac Van Tassel dies while riding horse near present-day Grand Rapids.
1900 - Inmates at the Toledo Workhouse on "Duck Island" on Swan Creek say they are being held in inhumane conditions. They allege "rotten meat" is being served to them and there is torture in dungeons.
1930 - A deadly gun battle erupts at the Standard Oil Company warehouse in South Toledo. The night watchman and one of the bandit gang members are killed.
1947 - Toledo bans sale of cream-filled pastries after 50 people are sickened by chocolate Eclairs from a
Lewis Avenue bakery.

March 3
1905 - Master pianist and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski of Poland plays to packed audience at Toledo's Valentine Theater.
1930 - Ground is broken for University Hall at the new University of Toledo campus being built on Bancroft Street. The first building on the new campus.

1937 - Earth tremors shake much of Midwest, including downtown Toledo.
1944 - USS Mackinaw Coast Guard cutter built and launched at the Toledo Shipyards. The large cutter would continue service on the Great Lakes for 60 years before it was retired and became a museum ship at Mackinaw City.
1981 - Ollie Czelusta, who in the 1950s served as Toledo’s first Polish mayor, dies at the age of 85.

March 4
1919 - “Babe,” the large Indian elephant at the Toledo Zoo, is used to push a big truck out of the heavy mud at Dartmouth and Amherst Street adjacent to the zoo. The truck is crushed in the incident.
1955 - The large log building on the BGSU campus known as the "Falcon's Nest" is moved to Portage Ohio where it was used for years as the American Legion Hall.
1976 - Toledo bowler, 46-year old John Pezzin rolls 33 consecutive strikes in back to back 300 games and an 859 series at Miracle Lanes. It sets a new record for consecutive strikes.
1983 - Four prisoners escape from the newly opened Lucas County Jail