Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Dec. 14
1900: Toledo Deputy Fire Marshal Walter Payne, during a meeting to discuss fire safety with the state fire marshal, lights a cigar and drops the match in a wastebasket, setting it ablaze.
1910: Toledo City Council approves spending $1,000 to create a laboratory for the Health Department to help stop typhoid and diphtheria.
1933: One of the worst water main breaks in the city’s history takes place as a pipe ruptures on Parkside, flooding wide areas of West Toledo. The flood closes schools and sends 15 million gallons into the streets per day.
1940: A fire at Forest Park Amusement Center near Genoa on Woodville Road destroys the park's four-lane bowling alley.
1945: The first Italian prisoners of war held at the prison facility at Camp Perry are returned home to Italy.
Dec. 15
1796: General Anthony Wayne, hero of the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the early Indian wars of the region, dies of gout in Erie, Pa.
1872: James Welch becomes the first Toledo fireman killed in the line of duty, succumbing to a blaze on Lafayette Street.
1884: Mark Twain appears before an audience at the Toledo Opera House.
1929: In an unprecedented engineering marvel, storefronts along East Toledo’s Main Street are pushed back 10 feet to widen the road for auto traffic.
1937: Toledo Community Traction votes to remove all street cars in the city and replace them with trackless trolleys and buses.
1949: Five people, including three members of one family, die in house fire on Laskey Road.
Dec. 16
1798: John Berdan, Toledo's first mayor, is born in New York.
1882: One of Toledo first major blazes occurs as the Hall block is destroyed by flames in a wind-driven fire that spread over a wide area of downtown.
1920: The Toledo News Bee reports rumors that a gang of criminals has come to Toledo to try and free the notorious gang leader “Cowboy Hill” Joe Nuzzio from his prison cell at the Lucas County Jail.
1933: An odd story appears in the news about a woman, Louise Watson, who is so poor she went to the City Park dump and built a house out of scrap material. With discarded wood and tin, she crafted a four-room home with a stove and dining room table. She says she has sealed it up in order to make it "rat proof."
1949: The New York Central Railroad suspends service on its historic passenger rail route between Toledo and Cleveland on what was known as the “old road,” which ran southeast from Toledo through Genoa, Fremont, and Clyde.
1954: Western Auto stores in Toledo are selling Daisy Red Ryder BB guns for $6.95, and Western Flyer sleds for $3.25.
1958: Some 600 sailors aboard 20 lake ships are marooned in Western Lake Erie due to a heavy cover of ice.
Dec. 17
1875: The “Stony Yard,” or City Workhouse, opens in Toledo for inmates to make blocks in the winter and bricks in the summer.
1900: The Longshoremen’s Union in Toledo agrees to company demands that ore handlers are no longer allowed to drink on the job. Beer wagons and sellers have been lining up at the Toledo ore docks and doing brisk business.
1910: Toledo policeman Clarence Mead shoots and kills notorious Toledo criminal, Ted Mack, in the Wabash rail yards after Mack fired shots at police officers in an ambush. The 23-year-old Mack came from a family of crime, including his mother and brother John, who were involved in the murder of Toledo policeman John Boyle in 1903.
1913: The “You Will Do Better in Toledo” sign is unveiled and lighted atop the Valentine Theater, where it remained until the 1960s.
1926: The Chicago Tribune states that Toledo's raw sewage is making a cesspool of the western end of Lake Erie.
1941: An armed gunman robs a brothel on Wabash Street. He takes an undetermined bundle of cash from five women and one man. It's the second robbery of a Toledo brothel in 24 hours.
Dec. 18
1906: Toledo police begin the practice of taking fingerprints of suspects.
1907: A near riot is averted in downtown Toledo when police step in to control a mob of women fighting to buy cut-rate chickens from a street vendor’s wagon at the Superior Street market. Police say two ladies almost came to blows as the struggle ensued to buy the cheap chickens.
1911: A massive diphtheria outbreak occurs in the Lindsey area, and parts of Sandusky County have shut down schools, churches, and other public functions until the first of the year.
1929: The Toledo City Mission is now feeding over 3,000 unemployed men.
1933: Toledo native and writer Idah McGlone Gibson dies in Hollywood. Gibson was a well-known syndicated columnist, poet, and author who later in life left Toledo to live in southern California.
1940: Skilliter's Hardware in Genoa is offering last-minute Christmas specials, including a new Hibbard radio for $9.95 and a .22 caliber rifle for $4.45.
1978: Actress and celebrity Katie Holmes is born in Toledo as Katherine Noelle Holmes.
Dec. 19
1833: Vistula becomes the location for the first lots sold in Toledo.
1835: The Toledo Blade is published for the first time as a weekly.
1891: The Wood County village of Weston is devastated when a fire levels more than 12 businesses and homes, along with a hotel, as a volunteer bucket brigade fought valiantly to stop the flames.
1913: A smallpox outbreak occurs in Toledo. As many as 75 people are infected.
1936: Toledo Schools superintendent Ralph Dugdale lashes out at adults for setting a bad example by exhibiting "promiscuous" drinking at football games.
1937: A ticket cashier at the Rivoli Theater foils a would-be robber at the ticket window when she demands to see his gun. He slipped a note to her that said, “hand over the money, I've got a gun under my coat.” Angela Krupp calmly said, “I don't believe it. Let me see it.” At the point the young robber became silent, turned, and ran.
1938: Five people from the Oak Harbor area are killed when a fast-moving, westbound passenger train hits their car at the Rocky Ridge train crossing. The victims were returning home from a party.
1957: Tiedtke's is selling complete electric toy train sets for Christmas for just $14.64.
1965: A North Toledo druggist, John Taylor, is shot and killed during a holdup of his drug store at Columbus and Erie Streets. A woman was also wounded. Three men from Detroit are arrested just north of Monroe a short time later and charged with the crime.
1975: The Christmas shopping spirit begins to fade in downtown Toledo, as it's reported that Santa Claus will not be making an appearance in any of the remaining downtown department stores. Santa had been a regular downtown attraction during the holidays for decades.
Dec. 20
1892: Bridge Street in East Toledo is changed to Main Street.
1903: The Toledo News Bee details the miseries and despondent environment of the county infirmary and poor farm on Detroit Avenue. It reports, “there is no more misery in hell for 283 inmates.”
1920: The American Railway Express office in Toledo is robbed by six masked gunmen, who overpower guards and take over $16,000.
1923: The Toledo Port Commission unleashes a storm of protest when it votes to turn Bay View Park and golf course into an industrial park. The plan encounters strong resistance from neighborhood leaders and parks commissioner S.P. Jermain, who calls the move “absolutely predatory.”
1931: Toledo police begin cracking down on narcotics trafficking, raiding a home and arresting 25 people, including 17 women.
