Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
April 26
1835: The first military skirmish between Ohio and Michigan forces takes place in the Toledo War as shots are fired between the opposing state militias in the dispute over the so-called "Toledo strip." The "Battle of Philips Corners" on this day results in no casualties.
1858: Land is given to the city of Toledo for its first public park. It is a small plot in East Toledo, which would later be named Prentice Park in honor of Fredrick Prentice, the first "white" baby born in Toledo area. Prentice became a very wealthy businessman in the region.
1867: Henry Breed is hired as Toledo's first police chief.
1947: Patricia “Satira” Schmidt, a dancer from Toledo, says she didn’t mean to kill her boyfriend John Lester Mee, on their boat in Havana Harbor. Schmidt said the pistol went off accidentally as the two were arguing on the converted yacht. The young dancer, who was a Devilbiss graduate, is being held in a Havana jail and awaiting formal charges for the killing of the Chicago-area attorney.
1974: The derelict 80-year-old Earle Hotel on Jefferson Avenue is ravaged by flames. The blaze could be seen for miles and drew thousands of onlookers to downtown Toledo to witness its demise.
April 27
1861: The first group of Union army volunteers departs Perrysburg, headed for the battlefields of the Civil War.
1867: Toledo’s first paid police force, the Metropolitan Police (MCs), begin patrolling the city streets.
1895: The steamer “Sadie Shepherd,” en route to Toledo, founders near Turtle Point as five people drown.
1898: Toledo soldiers muster at National Guard Armory on Spielbusch Avenue as they get ready for duty in the Spanish-American War.
1923: Famed British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes fame, attends a seance with Toledo psychic Miss Ada Besinnet. The writer calls her one of the best in the world. This was Doyle's second trip to Toledo for a seance with the medium.
1932: Tiffin sportsman Frank Callahan spends $1,000 to stage a funeral for his beloved pet Pomeranian, "Baby Ginter.” Hundreds turn out at his home to see the dog lie in repose in a $400 casket.
1934: Toledo police sergeant Henry Frisch observes his 48th anniversary with the department, the oldest man in the ranks, after joining in 1887. He remembers what was called the “Bloody Fifth” ward, when gangs were constantly engaged in bloody and sometimes deadly brawls with police and other gangs. Gang leaders Patty Mead and Red MacGuire were among those killed.
1966: A Chicago woman, Mary Matz, takes a taxicab from Toledo to Richmond, Calif. to see a doctor because "she isn't feeling good." The 2,640-mile trip cost her $1,200.
April 28
1813: The attack on American forces at Fort Meigs in the War of 1812 begins as British soldiers and Native American allies bombard the fort on the banks of the Maumee River for five days.
1904: The Ladies’ Home Journal selects America’s Prettiest Children. Three of them are from Northwest Ohio: Penelope Hubbard (Toledo), Helen Moore (Bowling Green), and Beulah Zimmerman (Fremont).
1911: The State Pharmacy Board claims that Toledo is the “cocaine capital of Ohio.” Rampant abuse of the drug is reported and numerous “coke” parties being held by teens.
1931: Toledo police remove a wall panel in a house in the 500 block of Norwood, which leads to discovery of a narrow tunnel to a hidden room with 52 gallons of bootleg whiskey.
1939: The Toledo Blade reports that professional golfer Byron Nelson has been signed to become head pro at Inverness Country Club. During his time in Toledo, Nelson would win a number of major tournaments.
April 29
1913: A somber reunion is held in Toledo for the survivors of the Sultana tragedy, a riverboat that sank on the Mississippi River after the Civil War. More than 1,100 Union soldiers, most who had been released from Confederate prison camps, died in the disaster. Hundreds of the victims were from Ohio with many from the Toledo area.
1920: Immaculate Conception Church at Eastern and Maumee burns to the ground, along with five neighboring homes.
1947: Toledo Public Schools acquire $750,000 worth of war surplus to be used in schools, from machinery to a train car of toilet paper.
1949: Toledo judges and city officials are given a demonstration of the soon-to-be-used traffic radar devices for catching speeders on Toledo roadways. Toledo will be among the first in the nation to use radar for traffic enforcement.
1959: Governor Clyde Tingley of New Mexico and his wife Carrie Wooster, who departed Bowling Green in 1911, give a 40-acre farm with oil leases to the new Wood County Hospital. Clyde later was a popular two-term governor of that state.
1962: The “King of the Twist,” Chubby Checker, appears at the Toledo Sports Arena.
April 30
1879: Actress Lillie Ellis is shot through the neck by a jealous husband at the Hooper House hotel before turning the gun on himself. Reports say Ellis may survive her wound.
1891: Tiffin’s Sells Circus is hit by a tornado as tents blown down and animals scatter. One woman is killed by a falling tent pole.
1908: The Horseshoer’s Union is threatening to strike in Toledo over increasing use of machine-made vs. man-made horseshoes.
1914: An army of women armed with brooms and shovels take to the streets of East Toledo as part of a larger campaign to clean the city.
1921: Building lots on Princeton Drive near Broadway in South Toledo are being sold for $500.
1930: Esther Antin, a Toledo attorney who made national news by acting as the prosecutor in a trial of a Toledo woman accused of shooting and killing a man for insulting her, is getting scores of marriage proposals now that she is famous. Her photo appeared in national papers, which led to the requests, which included a rancher in Texas and a steamship agent in Alaska.
May 1
1854: The new Toledo High School opens in downtown Toledo.
1884: Moses Fleetwood Walker plays his first major league game with the Toledo Blue Stockings in a contest against Louisville, thus becoming the first African American to play in a major league baseball game. The Toledo team had just joined the American Baseball Association, making it a major league team.
1899: Henry Altman claims to have seen a funnel shaped craft with a fan-type of appliance on top of it while fishing near Bean Creek in Williams County. He said it flew fast overhead.
1918: Toledo's notorious segregated district known as the "Tenderloin" closes for good by order of the War Department. More than 8,000 workers of the saloons and houses of ill repute are sent packing.
1940: Two cars plunge out of a third-story garage at Brown Motor Sales on Main Street in East Toledo. There were no injuries, but plenty of damage was done as the cars came crashing down onto the sidewalk.
1948: Eight-thousand people attend a May Day event at St. Francis de Sales Church in downtown Toledo to pray for peace.
1959: The first ocean-going ship, the “Prinz Willem George Frederik,” docks in Toledo after using the new St. Lawrence Seaway.
1966: Rising lake levels flood much of the Jerusalem Township lake shore area. Over 500 people get typhoid inoculations as a precaution.
1967: Lucas County Sheriff’s Deputy Herbert Wexler is killed in a two-car accident on Route 2 in Jerusalem Township.
May 2
1925: A tragedy on Lake Erie takes place when the sand sucker “Kelly Island” rolls over in the water during a violent storm and nine of the 16 crew members drown.
1937: The Kelsey and Freeman Lumber Company is destroyed by flames at 1225 Indiana Ave.
1962: The Dutch Elm disease is reported to be "out of control" in Toledo. More than 6,200 elms have been cut down so far, and thousands more may come down in the future.
1966: Buckeye Brewery workers in Toledo go on strike for a better wage and benefit package.
1976: Toledo’s first public radio station, WGTE-FM, debuts.
1978: The long and bitter Toledo school teachers strike comes to an end after Toledo Board of Education members threaten to fire 3,800 striking teachers and workers if they don’t return to school and resume classes.
1983: A tornado hits the North Baltimore area in Wood County and one person is killed.
