Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
July 20
1854: A transportation milestone occurs as a train makes a run from Toledo to Chicago for the first time.
1854: The cholera epidemic begins in Perrysburg and 117 people die before it subsides.
1907: History is made at Put-in-Bay when the first radio ship-to-shore broadcast is completed during the Mills yacht races. A transmitter operated by inventor Lee Deforest was put aboard the yacht “Thelma” and a receiver, operated by Frank Butler, was placed onshore. Deforest was able to broadcast, by voice, the progress of the race as it was underway. They would repeat their broadcast milestone in downtown Toledo a month later.
1921: Sandy Silverwood of Toledo is sentenced to three months in jail by a police court judge after it was revealed that he had won the wife of David Brooks in a poker game back in 1917. The three of them continued living together on a houseboat in Maumee River with the Brooks’ three children. The kids were ordered into juvenile custody and charges were dismissed against Mary Brooks.
1935: Big band musician and orchestra leader Benny Goodman plays at a club in Luna Pier, Mich.
1984: Serial killer Alton Coleman is arrested in Chicago, charged with a murderous crime spree in Toledo and elsewhere in Midwest.
July 21
1907: Police in Toledo are investigating the discovery of a mysterious old skeleton unearthed by an excavating crew on Indiana Avenue near an old stagecoach road. It was buried in a shallow grave. They also found a purse and a coin from 1829 and a foreign coin dated 1748.
1921: An oppressive heat wave continues in the Toledo area with temperatures in the 90s. Two more people fall dead from the heat, while others fall ill. A riot breaks out between rival youth groups at Highland Park pool.
1927: Dancer and musician Fritzi Bigelow dances to the “Black Bottom” on a wing of a large airplane flying over Toledo’s Maumee River. She is accompanied by her musical group, which usually plays at the Bayshore Inn.
1933: Stella Todd of McComb in Hancock County reports that she crawled into bed only to find a five-foot black snake under the sheets with her. When she screamed, the snake slithered off and disappeared into the carpet.
1934: The hottest day in Ohio history is recorded at 113 degrees in Gallipolis, Ohio. Defiance reaches 109 degrees.
1948: WSPD Television, Channel 13, signs on the air.
1971: A fire destroys the Harborview Village Hall and Tavern.
1983: The jobless rate in Lucas County climbs to 12.8 percent.
July 22
1830: The first murder case is recorded in the area as tavern owner Isaac Richardson of Waterville is killed near Roche De Boeuf. The suspect, George Porter, is caught and executed by hanging months later.
1842: Author Charles Dickens travels through Northwest Ohio’s “Black Swamp” and later writes about his “miserable” time of it.
1864: Major General James Birdseye McPherson of Clyde is killed at the Battle of Atlanta. He is the highest ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War and is buried at the McPherson Cemetery in Clyde. General Grant was said to have cried upon hearing of McPherson’s death.
1922: The first commercial parking lot opens for business in downtown Toledo at Michigan and Jackson. The Huebner's Auto Park charges 25 cents a day, or a dollar per week.
1924: A train slams into a bus loaded with young people near Oak Harbor. Ten people, most from the Attica and Bloomville area, are killed in the tragedy. They had been attending a picnic at Locust Point and were on their way home when the fast train slammed into the side of the bus.
1927: A crowd of thirsty and sad onlookers gather at the rail docks on Elm Street as police and dry agents break 15,000 bottles of confiscated Canadian Labatt's beer. A river of foam made its way out into Maumee Bay as grown men cried.
1932: The Toledo News Bee reports that two rattlesnakes are killed at a home near Angola and King roads. The snake killed the family dog before a woman with a clothesline pole dispatched it for eternity.
1971: Toledo’s second indoor mall, Franklin Park, opens for business at Talmadge and Monroe.
1983: The Seneca County Jail is shut down by court order because of treatment of inmates. Prisoners are ordered to be sent to other facilities.
July 23
1905: Mathias Haring of Toledo, who reportedly drowned on Lake Erie and was declared dead, shows up at his home on Sherman Street in Toledo, very much alive and well. He arrives just before a court hearing was to be held to appoint someone to handle his estate.
1927: The arrest of Joe Foley at Union Station in Toledo gets national press attention when it's revealed the dapper looking lad, who once worked the lake freighters, is actually Alice Lovejoy of Massachusetts.
1928: Aviator Amelia Earhart visits Toledo by train while on a special tour of America following her historic solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. She is given a special welcoming ceremony by the mayor and other dignitaries as thousands of fans turn out to greet her. She is given a special medal from Roulet Jewelers.
1942: Residents of West Toledo are sickened after rolling clouds of sulfur gas escape from a chemical factory and blanket the area near Eleanor and Lewis Avenues. Many residents report coughing and burning sensations in their lungs.
1963: The Lucas County Fairgrounds opens in Maumee.
July 24
1877: Civil War hero, General James Steedman, takes a populist stand and urges Toledoans to stage a general strike for higher wages.
1899: A million-dollar grain elevator fire erupts in East Toledo along the riverfront as 900,000 bushels of grain are destroyed.
1901: Toledo city officials determine they have found the oldest buildings in the city. The oldest wooden cottage is on Lagrange Street next to the Lagrange Street School, built in the 1830's. And the oldest brick building is located at Summit and Cherry in the form of Newcomer Drugs. It is estimated to have been built in 1831.
1941: The “unsafe” steel highway bridge over the Maumee River in Waterville collapses, sending a milk truck into the waters below. The driver and helper receive minor injuries. Local residents had been warning the state for years about the old span.
1967: Deadly race riots terrorize the streets of Detroit. Five people are killed and a thousand are injured in a widening melee of civil unrest.
July 25
1890: Nathaniel Locke dies in Toledo at the age of 97. He was the father of Toledo Blade writer David Ross Locke who authored the popular “Petroleum v. Nasby Letters” in The Blade. Nathaniel Locke was also famous having been one of the founders of the Republican Party in 1856.
1903: The new Home Brewing Company on Oak Street in East Toledo is nearing completion.
1907: Edward Rausch of Toledo appears before police in court, charged with leasing a home to a woman who used it to run a house of prostitution or “disorderly house” for immoral purposes. It was in 500 block of Erie between Adams and Cherry. The judge cleared the court of curious spectators when testimony became explicit about the activities that happened there.
1914: Toledo Beach advertises that the Lotus Blossoms are in full bloom on area lagoons. It is the only place in America with such a “profusion” of these “sacred flowers of the Nile” and the source of their introduction to Toledo has never been confirmed.
1933: The Genoa Women’s Relief Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) celebrates its 50th anniversary. They were formed to honor the Union veterans who fought in the Civil War. They meet regularly at the WRC/GAR hall near the Town Hall, built in 1856 as a school house.
1942: The “Red Hot Mama” Sophie Tucker appears in Toledo to sing for sailors at the Hollywood Theater Cafe.
1951: Three University of Toledo basketball players are indicted in New York for fixing the point margin in a game against Niagara University in the 1950 season.
1963: A new A&P Store opens on Navarre Avenue in Oregon.
1967: Racially charged rioting erupts on the city streets of Toledo as fires are set amid heavy looting and vandalism. Police keep control, but arrest 60 people during the melee. Curfews are imposed city-wide and most of the damage is on Dorr Street near Detroit Avenue.
July 26
1877: A national train strike begins. Toledo streets are patrolled by citizens trying to avert any mob violence in the streets.
1904: The Toledo News Bee reports that local “Chinamen” in Toledo are the frequent buyers in a growing market for opium.
1918: The Millbury Red Cross has been busy aiding the boys on the war front to “defeat the Kaiser.” Since February, they report knitting 11 hospital coats, 49 abdominal bandages, 50 convalescent robes, 25 pairs of underwear, 125 pajamas, 100 pairs of socks and 36 sweaters.
1932: Eighty-one-year-old vagrant, James Leiby, who wandered the roadways of the U.S. for decades, dies in Toledo. Hospital nurses find $6,900 in cash pinned beneath his heavy clothes.
1967: The second night of rioting and arson continues on Toledo city streets. Some police officers are pelted with rocks and bottles.
