Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Jan. 4
1887: A major train wreck occurs near Republic in Seneca County, killing 20 people and burning three coach cars in the pileup.
1904: The Toledo city parks department begins its annual tradition of giving all young school children horse drawn sleigh rides.
1924: Bob Stranahan, the president of Champion Spark Plug, tells a rotary group he remembers his first factory in Toledo that was built over a laundry in downtown Toledo. He still recalls the smell of boiling laundry wafting up from below as he and his brother Frank were making spark plugs.
1950: Toledo city council members consider an end to garbage incineration in favor of burying garbage in landfills.
Jan. 5
1894: The Toledo Hospital reports that it had 239 patients in 1893, which included 71 operations and 25 deaths.
1920: A deadly explosion and blaze at the National Refrigeration Company factory in the 100 block of Nebraska Avenue in Toledo kills two workers.
1936: The Toledo area experiences two major fires in one day. Flames deal very heavy damage to the 35-room mansion of Toledo industrialist George Mather on River Road near Rossford. The second major fire was the landmark Toledo Coliseum at Bancroft and Ashland. It was one of the oldest entertainment venues in the city at that time. Damage was said to be about $50,000.
1946: Wood County Sheriff Clarence Marsh says gamblers tied to organized crime offered him thousands of dollars in bribes to allow them to operate the El Rancho Ballroom, an illegal casino on Woodville Road. Marsh says he was approached several times to reopen the “swanky” club that was shut down in 1945.
1948: Ten children are killed in a horrific accident near Archbold when a tractor-drawn sleigh was ran over by a fast-moving train.
1955: Toledo Express Airport's official opening day is marked by the cancellation of all flights because of bad weather.
Jan. 6
1905: A formal protest is lodged against the Toledo Zoo by the Ancient Order of Hibernians objecting to the name of a monkey at the zoo. They say its name “Mrs. Murphy” is an insult to the Irish. The zoo says it will change the name.
1912: Amos Jacobs, later to become Toledo’s Danny Thomas, is born to immigrant parents in Deerfield, Mich. They later moved to North Toledo where Danny spent much of his early life, before moving on to stardom in the entertainment world.
1923: Police Chief Lanker of Lima says he will start taking photos of people arrested for intoxication and then will show them their antics when they are sober. He thinks if people know how foolish they look when they are drunk, it may stop them from drinking.
1937: The Ohio Highway Department announces it will begin the long-awaited paving of “Canal Boulevard,” or what would later become the Anthony Wayne Trail from Toledo to Waterville.
1946: A huge fire levels the Hobart Dry Goods store in Pemberville.
1955: Toledo Express Airport opens for air traffic after being delayed by a day because of bad weather. Thousands of Toledo residents turned out for the opening and the arrival of the first plane, which brought one passenger, a traveling pajama salesman to the airport.
Jan. 7
1837: Toledo incorporates and becomes an official Ohio community.
1904: Popular long time Toledo civic leader Elijah Woodruff dies.
1918: The Frances D. Jermain branch of the Toledo Library system opens.
1935: Toledo News Bee reporter Fred Spring confirms the story that a Mr. and Mrs. Griffith of East Toledo did have a mouse named “Minnie” that could sing, or warble, to music. Spring also admits that while it was in his care, the singing mouse escaped and hasn't been found.
1947: Toledo police officer Lt. John McCarthy shot and killed near the safety building by a suspect being brought in for questioning.
1951: WSPD TV, or Channel 13, debuts its first news program with well-known radio announcer Jim Uebelhart as the main anchor on Sunday nights from 10:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Jan. 8
1884: Assets of the University of Toledo are turned over to the City of Toledo, establishing it as a municipal school.
1900: A huge fire in Prairie Depot (now Wayne) in Wood County destroys 11 businesses and homes.
1916: Toledo grocer Henry Ronfeldt is shot and killed at his store at Magnolia and Erie Streets. The 56-year-old was shot once by the young intruder after he threw a milk bottle at the robber because he didn't think he had a gun. A large force of police officers and detectives are looking for the killer.
1957: A new interstate (I-280) drawbridge over the Maumee River is dedicated in honor of Medal of Honor recipient Toledoan Lt. Robert Craig, who was killed in Italy in World War II.
Jan. 9
1904: Former Ohio Governor and Seneca County native Charles Foster dies at the age of 75.
1933: In a dramatic shootout on Toledo's north side, suspected fugitive cop killer Bob Zwick is wounded and captured along with his "gal-pal" "Dago Rosie." A Toledo police rookie is wounded in the shootout on Erie Street near Cherry. Zwick was wanted in the Cincinnati area for the murder of a policeman.
1940: A major fire levels three retail businesses in downtown Luckey.
1971: Fireman Ralph Arthur dies of a heart attack in Maumee Bay trying to save his two children, who plunged through the ice on a snowmobile near Cullen Park.
1997: Com Air flight 3272 crashes in rural Monroe County en route to Detroit Metro Airport. All twenty-nine people aboard are killed.
Jan. 10
1907: City health records show that the most lethal disease in Toledo is tuberculosis with 207 deaths reported in 1906.
1931: A 28-year-old Toledo mother is ordered to the workhouse with her two-month-old baby son. A.J. Keuhn was convicted for reckless driving in a 1929 accident in which another young woman, Christine Eroh, lost her leg. The Toledo Court sentenced Keuhn to the workhouse. However, she and her son are staying at the home of the workhouse superintendent Fred Bradley because of her baby son.
1933: The grand Peristyle Auditorium, promoted by Florence Libbey, the widow of museum founder Edward Libbey, opens at the Toledo Museum of Art in a debut performance with the Philadelphia Symphony.
1987: Inventor and world-famous glass artist Dominick Labino dies at his home in Grand Rapids at the age of 76.
