Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Feb. 23
1916: Walbridge Park greenhouse gardeners are reporting their crop of bananas is starting to ripen. With temperatures in the greenhouse between 70 and 100 degrees, the gardeners expect to have about three bunches that will soon be ready to eat.
1925: Albert Turner, a workman on the new Ft. Meigs Hotel on St. Clair Street falls 150 feet down an elevator shaft – and survives. Turner says he thought when he fell “he was a dead man” but then woke up. His worst injury was a bruise on his right hip.
1927: Eight inmates escape from the Toledo Workhouse after using saws to cut their way out. The workhouse farm had been under heavy criticism for overcrowding and poor conditions.
Feb. 24
1910: The new filtration plant opens in Toledo providing Toledoans with filtered and clean drinking water.
1915: Toledo fireman John Kaintz dies while he is en-route to a fire that was reported at Wabash Railroad roundhouse.
1924: Arthur Harding, the man who killed Toledo policeman Kress in August of 1923, is put to death in the electric chair. As Harding started to say a prayer for forgiveness, it was interrupted by a lethal jolt of electricity.
1942: Nathan Ladd and Walter Smith of Put-in-Bay say they have driven their cars over the “ice bridge” from the island to Port Clinton to buy some bait, the first ice crossing in two years.
1947: Five children are killed in car accident on Woodville Road near Genoa while they were being driven to a school in Toledo by their teacher.
1995: The USS Toledo submarine is commissioned at Norfolk, Va.
Feb. 25
1887: The Henning oil well in Wood County produces 2,500 barrels in its first hour of operation.
1904: It’s reported that a giant bald eagle attacks man in Fremont. He and three others subdue and kill the large bird.
1913: A wind-swept blaze in Walbridge nearly destroys the town, but quick work by a "bucket brigade" saves the day.
1936: Four-hundred gas station operators in Toledo agree to ban gasoline sales to drunk drivers.
Feb. 26
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 line up to watch.
1961: Oak Harbor grocery store is selling three dozen eggs for $1.29.
Feb. 27
1901: A man who had his case dismissed in Toledo police court comes back to courtroom with a guitar and serenades judge and spectators with several songs of the South.
1919: Toledo motorcycle policeman "Swiatecki" run over by street car at Indiana and Junction Streets and loses his clothes in the ordeal. He climbs a nearby tree to hide and yells to passersby that he needs a pair of pants.
1935: Thousands of women attend an all-day cooking school at the 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.
1976: Owens-Illinois executive, Toledoan William Niehous, is kidnapped from his home in Caracas, Venezuela by terrorists. 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. Downtown hotels jammed with stranded travelers.
1903: Albert Wade is found guilty of murdering Kate Sullivan in the farm home she shared with her sister just west of Toledo. In the dramatic trial, Wade's brother, Ben Wade is also found guilty. 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.
1949: Woodville residents hold more meetings to demand that the operators of the Woodville lime plants do more to curtail the smoke and dust nuisance created by the plants.
March 1
1803: Ohio admitted to the Union.
1901: Professor Foster, principal of Bowling Green High School, is pummeled by J.W. McKnight, head of the city's Power and Light Company. The beating was in retribution for a severe punishment that Foster inflicted to McKnight's son.
1906: Frances Goodell of Bowling Green finds three pearls while shucking oysters. One she says was as big as a pea and plans on having the pearls set in a piece of jewelry.
1926: Seventeen people are arrested after “rum runners war” erupts into gun battle on streets of downtown Toledo and Old West End.
1943: The war effort continues in the area as Elmore sponsors a tin can drive needed for war materials. A patriotic rally is planned in Rocky Ridge and Graytown is holding a war fund drive for the Red Cross, while schedules are being planned for the next black-out drills.
