Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Feb. 1
1863: The first mass is held at St. Patrick’s Church in Toledo.
1907: Controversy is raised when President Theodore Roosevelt suggests that a “colored man” be appointed to a key federal post for Toledo.
1908: The Majestic Theater on South St. Clair Street opens. It was a silent movie house that later became a Harry's clothing store.
1921: Community Traction company begins service with streetcar operations in Toledo.
1936: Toledo first-grader Barbara Lewis Lamont celebrates her sixth birthday, with a bullet still in her brain. Shot accidentally 18 months prior, doctors fear surgery might do more harm than good. Barbara is said to be doing well in school.
1953: Toledo’s Water Commissioner reports that city water use plummets during popular TV shows, then spikes when certain programs end. “I Love Lucy” ranked number one in this water ratings system.
Feb. 2
1813: The construction of Fort Meigs begins on the banks of the Maumee River by General Harrison as he prepares for battle with the British in the War of 1812.
1919: Clark Street Methodist Church catches fire and sustains heavy damage.
1921: A Toledo woman is highlighted in a national feature story because she is a hermit living in an old miner's cabin on Colorado's Pikes Peak. Julianne Charlotte Desmond’s only companions are a wolfhound and a cat. Her cabin is visible by an American flag flying over it.
1929: The “new” Sandusky Bay Bridge is opened, allowing faster travel between Toledo and Cleveland. Homing pigeons are used to send the news back to Toledo’s Mayor William Jackson. It is noted days later by the Toledo News Bee that only one of the birds ever made it back to Toledo.
1951: The Sigma Chi house in Bowling Green damaged heavily by fire.
1968: Toledo clergyman Rev. Robert Ziemer is killed along with four other missionaries in Vietnam. Ziemer's wife is wounded in the attack.
1975: Earth tremors are felt in Sandusky and Seneca Counties.
1981: Eighty fishermen are trapped on ice floes on Lake Erie and had to be rescued by Coast Guardsmen from Marblehead and Toledo.
Feb. 3
1900: W.G. Brown, a wagon driver for Tiedtke’s is severely injured in a runaway wagon accident on St. Clair Street.
1940: Ben Hazelton, Toledo industrialist and glass maker, jumps to his death from the ninth floor of Commodore Perry Hotel.
1950: Ernest Tiedtke, one of the founding brothers of the famous Toledo department store, dies at the age of 77 in Florida where he was spending the winter.
1975: Nationally known atheist and opponent of compulsory school prayer, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, a 1936 graduate of Rossford High School, speaks to an audience at the University of Toledo and tells students she thinks all American churches should be required to pay taxes.
Feb. 4
1862: Work is underway on a POW camp for Confederate Army soldiers at Johnson’s Island in Sandusky Bay.
1898: Toledo mayor Samuel Jones orders crackdowns on Sunday laws, decreeing all saloons and stores close, plus a ban on Sunday paper delivery, and the arrest of concert-goers at Valentine Theater.
1901: The historic Masonic Temple in downtown Toledo is gutted in a dramatic and stubborn blaze.
1929: William and Henry Bruns of Woodville are recognized as nation’s oldest twins at 95 years of age.
1946: A near tragedy occurs north of Toledo when 282 students narrowly escape a blaze that roared through a school in Temperance, Mich.
1951: A DuMont 17-inch television set is being sold for $495 at LaSalle’s.
1976: Four crewmen are killed in a head-on train collision on the Penn Central tracks in Fulton County near Pettisville.
Feb. 5
1907: The Toledo Yacht Club at Bay View Park burns to the ground. There were no injuries, but thousands of dollars in artwork, trophies, paintings, and other equipment and memorabilia are lost.
1927: Two people are killed in an explosion at First Congregational Church in Toledo at Collingwood and Acklin Street. The church building is destroyed in the blast and flames, blamed on a gas leak.
1929: Herta Zimmerman, 21, of North Toledo selected as “Toledo’s Most Deserving Girl” and will spend a week in California as guest of movie star Mary Pickford.
1930: The Farmers and Merchants Bank in Sylvania is robbed of more than $2,000 by five gun-toting bandits. One of those bandits is later revealed to be the notorious Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Eventually he is caught and convicted of the robbery, but escapes on his way to the Ohio penitentiary. In 1934, he is gunned down by Federal agents.
1934: The City of Toledo is on verge of bankruptcy, as many property owners default on over seven million dollars in property taxes.
1954: Toledo school board raises starting teachers’ salaries to $3,400 per year.
Feb. 6
1884: A large portion of the Perrysburg-Maumee bridge is swept away by flood waters.
1888: Industrialist Edward Drummond Libbey signs a contract to move his glass making company and hundreds of workers from Boston to Toledo.
1904: Six accused coal thieves are prosecuted in East Toledo court. Several teens testify that they stole the coal because their homes had run out of fuel.
1906: Toledo Schools begin plans to open new school on St. Clair Street for unruly and incorrigible students.
1911: The News Bee carries a story of a Toledo widow who is looking for a good farm home for her boys, whom she can no longer afford to care for. Her sons are "city lads," ages 13 and 11, and “would be good boys” and "country life could be their salvation.”
1924: A mile-long row of ancient maple trees on Sylvania Avenue were being cut down to widen the roadway. The trees extend from the “Point” at Phillips Avenue to Jackman Road. Mayor Brough swung the first ax to bring down the trees that were planted in 1876.
1970: More than 100 Toledo police officers stage a “blue flu” work stoppage to protest what they say is a cut in vacation bonuses.
1991: Toledo’s Danny Thomas (Amos Jacobs), comedian, actor, and singer, dies of a heart attack at age 79.
Feb. 7
1917: Alvin Czelusta, 30, of Pickle Road is shot through the heart at a restaurant in East Toledo by the owner, Evelyn Marleau, because he called her a “vile” name and threatened her. The trial becomes a sensation as she is tried and convicted of murder by prosecutor Esther Antin, the first woman in Ohio to prosecute a murder case.
1931: The Lucas County Coroner exonerates a Toledo man who shot and killed a "Peeping Tom" who looking through the windows of his home. The man’s actions were ruled as justifiable because the victim had a prison record in Canada.
1933: Tiedtke’s is selling fresh “bullhead” fish for 18 cents a pound and fresh sirloin steak for 12 cents a pound.
1941: The Department of War orders 1,500 “Jeeps” to be built at the Willys-Overland plant.
