Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
June 7
1905: Barnum and Bailey Circus pitches a big tent at Hawley and Dorr Sts. The circus features a three-ring circus, three herds of elephants and shows with 500 horses.
1913: An “ice famine” is feared as the city ice handlers go on strike because employers refuse to sign a bargaining agreement. Citizens are forced to pick up their own blocks from ice companies under threat of possible violence.
1917: The Matthews Boat Company of Port Clinton says it will have 10 new U-boat chasers ready for service in the Atlantic very soon. Keels have been laid for most of them. The U-boat chasers are reported to be very sturdy and can take the pounding waves of the oceans as they hunt for German submarines.
1938: Revelations surface that union “thugs” have been viciously beating workers who refuse to join the union at Toledo’s Pure Oil refinery. The allegations prompt official investigations.
1947: Two workers near Millbury report that small fish fell from the sky during a sudden downpour along Woodville Rd. The bed of their pick-up truck was filled with them.
1953: Park officials in Genoa are stumped as to why the quarry at Veteran’s Park is losing water. In recent weeks it has lost five feet of water, and in the shallow part of the quarry where swimming lessons are given it is now dry and lessons may be canceled.
June 8
1876: The village of Pemberville is officially formed.
1922: The Toledo YWCA is battling accusations that their group is a “hotbed of socialism.” The charge came from the head of the Ohio Manufacturing Association because the YWCA is campaigning for minimum wages for women and minimum working hours. The head of the Toledo YWCA, Mary Howard, says the issues are within the values of the YWCA.
1923: Toledo Public Schools officials rule that it is permissible for a child to come to school barefooted. Superintendent Charles Meek says the school has no intention of telling students how they should dress.
1929: Plans are revealed to the public for a new super-highway to be built on route of the old Erie Canal. The new road is built ten years later and becomes the Anthony Wayne Trail.
1933: A heat wave continues in Northwest Ohio as mercury levels reach 100 degrees in Bowling Green.
1953: Deadly tornadoes hit the Toledo area, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds. Four people are killed in a twister near Temperance, Mich., while eight people are killed in rural Wood and Henry counties.
June 9
1904: A crackdown begins on houses of ill-repute in Toledo’s “tenderloin” district after two 14-year-old girls are found working in the house of Lottie Barker on Lafayette St.
1921: Two veteran Toledo policemen officers, Harold Mossburger and Harry Dowell, are killed in a wild shootout with a barricaded gunman on Walnut St. The suspect later dies in a gun battle with police.
1923: A Toledo streetcar topples over on Ashland Ave. and as many as 18 passengers are injured and trapped aboard the damaged vehicle after it lost control and flew off the tracks.
1933: In the mountains near Los Angeles, 20-year-old Toledo-born movie actress Vera Williams (screen name-Claudette Ford), is killed in a plane crash along with actor Harry Sweet. They were said to be scouting movie locations.
1935: Oregon Township school officials set off a firestorm of controversy when they vote to fire all married women teachers in the school. They claim married women, whose husbands work, do not need the money.
June 10
1930: Toledo’s decrepit Union Station is leveled by flames to the cheers of thousands. Toledo officials officially begin a campaign to force New York Central to build a new station in Toledo.
1937: Walter Mack, a well-known East Toledo resident, is electrocuted when he goes to a car accident victim’s aid on Navarre Ave. and touches a live electric line that had fallen on the car.
1961: A dark day for Toledo firefighters occurs when a gasoline tanker truck on the Anthony Wayne Trail at Collingwood Ave. explodes and burns, ultimately killing four Toledo firemen and injuring over 60 others.
June 11
1840: The Great Whig Gathering takes place at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg as thousands assemble for the national event, nominating William Henry Harrison for President.
1897: Owney, the famous traveling U.S. postal dog, is shot and killed in Toledo by police after reportedly biting a postal clerk. The beloved animal is sent to a Toledo taxidermist and stuffed. His mounted body is eventually put on display at the Smithsonian’s Postal Museum where he and his incredible story are presented to visitors to this day.
1935: Toledo police bust a massive heroin ring that was transporting $6,000 worth of the drug every week into Toledo. A 16-year-old girl was being used to carry the drugs into Toledo by bus. Six others are arrested.
1943: Public daycare centers in Toledo are at capacity and in need of expansion as more women go to work to support the war effort.
1948: A 17-year-old worker on Catawba Island is bitten on the finger by a rattlesnake as he bent down to pick up a stick on the ground. He is expected to recover.
June 12
1880: J. Lee Richmond pitches baseball’s first perfect game for the Worcester Ruby Legs against Cleveland in a 5-0 shutout. In 1890, he moved to Toledo to become a science and chemistry teacher at Toledo and Scott high schools.
1905: A Toledo probation officer, “Beecher,” is credited with effective punishment for young shoplifters by forcing them to personally apologize to shop owners as they return the stolen items.
1926: Italian race car driver Peter Phileppo, 23, dies in racing crash at the Fort Miami Racetrack in Maumee.
1931: Two Chicago National Guard captains are killed in a plane crash near Toledo Transcontinental Airport.
1962: Toledo police officer Donald Brown dies in the line of duty on a domestic disturbance call on 14th St. His partner William Boyle (later a Toledo councilman) loses his eye in the gun battle.
June 13
1894: As the economy bottoms out, a large group of Polish emigrants march into the Toledo mayor's office to demand they be given employment.
1902: The Great Lakes wooden steamer, The Metropolis, burns down to the water's edge at dockside in Toledo on the Maumee River. An explosion in the boiler room is said to be the cause.
1914: The popular male elephant “Babe” at the Toledo Zoo becomes enraged and kills keeper Michael Raddatz in front of a horrified crowd. Raddatz had slapped Babe on the trunk with a strap to get the giant animal to move, causing the attack. The park board rules they will not allow children to ride him anymore.
1915: The towering Perry’s Monument at Put-in-Bay is opened to the public amid great fanfare and ceremony.
1920: Four Toledo children, from three to 11-years-old, are rescued by the city of Toledo’s steamer after being adrift for 24 hours in rowboat on Lake Erie.
1927: A motorcycle stunt driver jumps the guardrail and runs into the crowd at the Sheesley Circus at Detroit and Wolcott Ave., injuring three people.
