Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
April 13
1918: Three men accused of talking badly about Liberty Bonds are publicly tarred and feathered in downtown Toledo and put on display for a Liberty Bond rally. Eight men, including Toledo Vice Mayor Claude Kilbury, are accused of the assault.
1926: A thousand men and boys called the “Brotherhood” assemble at Port Clinton for a mass meeting on “today’s youth” and what is wrong with them. Speakers voiced opinions on sex, speed, idleness and religion.
1934: A strike begins at the Auto-Lite plant in North Toledo as workers walk off the job demanding union recognition and an end to some of the harsh conditions.
1984: Toledo underworld character Billy Scott goes to federal prison for racketeering in a massive bookmaking operation in the Toledo area.
April 14
1911: Professional baseball player and Toledo resident, Addie Joss, dies at his home from tubercular meningitis at age of 31. The Hall of Famer threw baseball's third perfect game in 1908.
1965: President Lyndon Johnson comes to Toledo to tour the areas devastated by the deadly Palm Sunday tornadoes. He meets with numerous survivors and promises federal help.
1979: A planned implosion brings down the old Willys administration building on North Cove Boulevard. Thousands of curious residents watch as the historic building is turned into a pile of smoking rubble.
April 15
1865: Toledoans are stunned by news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Residents hang black crepe and patriotic bunting draped from porches and store fronts. Myron Lamson of Toledo, the father of the brothers who started Lamson’s department store, designs Lincoln's funeral train car.
1936: A powerful bomb explodes at the home of prominent East Toledo attorney Mark Winchester on Euclid as a warning from mobsters. No one was injured.
1964: Frank Emmick, an international “seafood salesman” from Rossford, is sentenced to 30 years in prison in Cuba after being accused of espionage by Fidel Castro. He was later released in 1977.
April 16
1900: Rev. H.F. MacClane of a Norwood Avenue church warns his congregants that Toledo is an immoral city and is known everywhere as a city that is "wide open" to every kind of vice.
1928: Toledo police officer George Zientara is killed in ambush by robbers on Upton Avenue. The suspects are known killers but never brought to trial for the officer’s death.
1931: It was a deadly day in Bowling Green as Billy “The Killer" Miller and his partner "Pretty Boy Floyd,” get into a gun battle with police on streets of BG. Patrolman Ralph "Zeke" Castner is shot dead, and Miller also dies in the hail of bullets. Floyd escapes.
April 17
1916: Ground is broken for the new six story Mercy Hospital on Madison. It opened in 1918 just as the Spanish Influenza pandemic was starting to spread through the Toledo area.
1946: U.S. Labor Department statistics report that more than 145,000 people are employed in Toledo, with 1,630 job openings. Most jobs are paying over 75 cents an hour.
1965: Baseball returns to Toledo as the Mud Hens restart their legacy in Toledo as a farm club for the New York Yankees. The new home park will be the Lucas County Stadium at the fairgrounds in Maumee.
April 18
1905: A group of Toledo officials hold a banquet in an Oakdale sewer to celebrate its construction. The 19 men, in hip boots, completed an inspection and then in 12 inches of “clean” water they sat down to a surprise meal hosted by the contractors.
1932: Married teachers in Toledo launch a battle with TPS administrators over plan to fire the married women in favor of single female teachers who can be paid less.
1941: The U.S. Navy says the Bay View Park Armory in Toledo will start a school for 2,400 sailors to train on non-combat duties.
1943: Lucas County Commons Pleas Court Judge Paul Alexander grants a divorce to a couple who didn't make it through their honeymoon because the new bride was sneezing too much.
1949: The Ottawa County Co-op Elevator is destroyed by flames at Oak Harbor.
April 19
1909: Wood County officials decry public drunkenness on electric railcars passing through their county. No more “passing of the bottle” will be allowed by passengers.
1915: Toledo mothers complain that vacant lots are becoming dangerous public dumps after two children die from eating spoiled foods thrown into those lots on Vance Street.
1917: Twenty doctors at Toledo Hospital resign their positions after they have disagreement with trustees over the economics of the hospital versus the quality of care.
1933: Toledo mother and daughter, Julia Fields and Evelyn Long, make national news in "Ripley's Believe it or Not" as they both observed 50th wedding anniversaries on the same day.
1971: Toledoans begin the new policy of having to carry their own garbage cans out to the street for pick up. The refuse men will no longer retrieve them for homeowners.
