Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
April 20
1881: The magnificent, five-masted schooner, the "David Dows," is launched from Toledo. The launch drew massive crowds to the riverfront. The Dows was lost eight years later in a Lake Michigan storm.
1922: The Toledo Zoo’s "Tony the Ape” goes on a wild attack against popular animal keeper, Louis Scherer. It was a dramatic struggle as the large animal sunk his teeth into Scherer's neck. To stop the attack, Tony was shot to death. Scherer eventually recovered from his wounds.
1979: Two explosions and a huge fire at Sun Oil refinery rock neighborhoods around the facility in Oregon. No one is injured.
April 21
1926: The CLA-ZEL Theater opens in Bowling Green, using a mash-up of the names of owners Clark and Hazel Young.
1930: A deadly fire erupts at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. Inmates are trapped and 322 perish. Twenty-four of the victims were from Lucas County.
1937: A campaign by disgruntled East Toledo residents to secede from the city gets underway. Many Eastside residents complain they are not being treated fairly.
1951: Four young children are killed in a trailer fire on Woodville Road near Forest Park outside of Genoa. A defective heater is believed the cause of the fire.
April 22
1908: Eleven people in Maumee begin a series of painful shots at the base of the spine for “hydrophobia” after being bitten by a rabid dog.
1926: At Chase school in North Toledo, a young teen boy of 15 shows off a hand gun to classmates, then shoots himself in the leg while shoving the gun back in his waistband.
1935: Toledo mourns passing of Sylvanus P. Jermain, the man considered the "Father of American Public Golf.” Jermain's legacy was to create Toledo’s public parks system.
1947: Toledo health authorities say there is no evidence of a rabies epidemic, although 14 rabid dogs were found in the past week.
April 23
1911: Detectives in California discover that stolen dynamite from a Bloomville quarry in Seneca County was used in the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, a blast that killed 21 people.
1913: Two bison escape from the Toledo Zoo. "Bill and Belle" sent neighbors of Harvard Terrace running to the safety of their homes.
1919: Tornado hits buildings and homes near North Baltimore in Southern Wood County. One person is killed.
1977: Elvis Presley performs at Centennial Hall at the University of Toledo, drawing a sell-out crowd of nearly 10,000 fans.
April 24
1837: The first taxes are levied on Toledoans to pay for city services and salaries. The first city marshal, Calvin Comstock, is hired.
1901: The East Toledo baseball team gets new uniforms to prepare for new season, which ends with 34 wins in 36 games and a surprise victory over the Toledo Mud Hens.
1903: Ten-year-old Josephine Foster and an elderly blind man are hit by a trolly on St. Clair St. She is pinned down by her long locks of hair under the steel wheel. A passerby with a pair of scissors cuts her hair loose and rescues the girl and the old man.
1947: Virgil Gladieux announces that a “new” sports arena will be built at east end of Cherry Street Bridge on Main Street in East Toledo.
1953: Toledo's industrial scene changes dramatically as the Willys- Overland company sells the Jeep plant to the Kaiser-Frazer company.
April 25
1861: Thousands of Toledoans pour into the streets to send off the first Toledo Company of volunteers mustered for service in the Civil War.
1937: It’s Opening Day at Swayne Field, where box seats to watch Mud Hens play are sold for $1.
1955: Mass inoculation begins at schools around Toledo with the Salk vaccine to prevent childhood polio.
1959: The $459 million link between the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, officially opens to ship traffic.
April 26
1858: Land is given to the City of Toledo for its first public park, which was later named in honor of Fredrick Prentice, the first "white" baby born in Toledo area.
1918: Toledo City Parks says it will cost golfers at the Ottawa Park course $5 a season, or 10 cents for a round. The course had been free since it opened.
1946: The Telegraph Drive-in Theater opens with Hedy Lamarr in “Experiment Perilous.” Neighbors soon file a lawsuit about the noise coming from the outdoor speakers.
1974: The derelict Earle Hotel on Jefferson Ave. is ravaged by flames. The blaze drew thousands of onlookers downtown to witness the hotel’s fiery demise.
