Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
March 15
1915: Word is received that former Toledo stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey was killed during an exhibition flight over San Francisco Bay. Beachey lived in Toledo during his early days as a pilot, and it was Toledo aviator Roy Knabenshue who gave him his first lessons. Knabenshue said upon hearing the tragic news: “Aviation has lost a valuable man.”
1918: Native Germans living in Toledo are being told to surrender all weapons to federal marshals as the U.S. moves closer to involvement in the World War in Europe.
1925: The Toledo News Bee announces the schedule for the Toledo Public School's annual “Marble Tournament” at the Valentine Theater.
1943: Assistant Trilby Fire Chief Ralph Pelton rescues two children from a burning home on Glenn Street. His bravery is later honored with the Carnegie Hero Medal.
1945: Construction gets underway on Parkview Hospital in the Old West End.
1964: The Beatles appear on closed-circuit TV at the Rivoli Theater in downtown Toledo. Thousands of screaming fans pack the venue.
March 16
1910: Auto racing pioneer Barney Oldfield of Toledo sets the world speed record of 131.7 miles-per-hour at Daytona in Florida.
1916: A taxicab company from Detroit announces it will begin the city's first taxi service on the streets of Toledo.
1925: Point Place officials move to change scores of street names to a numbered system of identification.
1936: Another 400 young men are hired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to perform public works jobs in Toledo at wages of $19 to $25 a month.
1983: Champion Spark Plug workers in Toledo ratify a new three-year contract.
March 17
1842: The Wyandot Native Americans of Northwest Ohio sign a treaty to give up lands and are relocated to lands in Oklahoma and Kansas.
1855: It is reported that a "chain gang" is being formed in Toledo to put some of the “jail birds” to work cleaning up the streets.
1903: A freight train on the Pennsylvania line broke in two at Woodville. The sudden force of the impact caused damage to several cars and seriously injured three workers on the train, including the conductor who had to be sent to a hospital in Toledo for treatment.
1924: Two U.S. Army aviators from Selfridge Field in Michigan have a narrow escape on Lake Erie when their plane crashes onto the ice in Maumee Bay. The two airmen, bruised and shaken up, manage to stagger across a mile of ice to Wood Tick Island where they were able to summon help.
1930: The city of Toledo embarks on an ample clean-up campaign to beautify neighborhoods, lawns, streets, and sidewalks. A recent study of the city shows that some of the best areas in Toledo are “deplorably dirty.” The campaign has issued its first call for “soldiers” to join the effort.
1936: Toledo police and school officials express shock and launch an investigation into reports that 50 high school students took part in a liquor-fueled “petting party” and orgy.
1949: Bowling Green State University’s men’s basketball team loses to San Francisco in the NIT semifinals.
1995: The well-known "Big Boy" restaurant statue is stolen from its Secor Road location. It is held hostage and later found "dismembered." The story gathered humorous attention around the nation.
March 18
1860: A story appears in the Toledo Blade about Reverend Higgins of Elmore, who took a boat excursion with two young girls on the Portage River, only to have the boat get swept up in the fast current sending the boat into a bridge abutment and overturning it. After a considerable struggle, all were plucked from the water by two men from a local mill. The girls survived, but Higgins appeared lifeless until given some powerful brandy. Higgins was at last revived and the men shouted, “The dead liveth.” The report said that “powerful stimulants can be a reliable means to resuscitation.”
1895: The roundhouse of the Wabash Railroad on South Street near the Maumee River goes up in flames. Three men are killed by a falling wall. Nine others are injured.
1907: The historic Exchange Hotel in Perrysburg is destroyed by fire. It is where President William Henry Harrison once stayed.
1927: Toledo flapper Vivian Ingram is revealed as the 25-year-old confesses from a Toledo jail cell to holding up nine gas stations in Toledo and staging so called "petting parties” to make money for her kids.
1931: Nine fishing boats from Toledo head out into Lake Erie to begin fishing season for catches of perch and pickerel.
1949: European art stolen by the Nazi's and recovered by the U.S. Army are on display at the Toledo Museum of Art. The paintings were found hidden in salt mines in Poland and valued at over $50 million. Thousands of Toledo area school children visit the museum to see this rare exhibit. Toledo was the final stop of the U.S. tour. It was Genoa soldier, Sgt. Merrill Rudes, who got information from some Polish ladies that something might be hidden in the mines, and it was Rudes who wrote the report that led to the discovery of the lost treasures.
March 19
1874: Word is received that two men finally reached West Sister Island to deliver provisions to the lighthouse keeper and his family stranded on the Lake Erie Island. The two men left Toledo but got caught in a massive gorge of ice. The ice began to freeze around them and then began to crush their wooden boat, allowing water to fill the boat. They kept bailing for their lives and finally reached the island.
1903: The Keiper Brothers factory outlet store on Dorr Street features the famous Spychalski Quads of Toledo, one of only two sets of quads in the U.S. The event draws large crowds of curious shoppers to the store. It was estimated some 30,000 people showed up and police had to be called in for crowd control.
1907: Construction is in high gear for the new White City Amusement park located near Auburn Avenue along the Ottawa River. The owners say the park will have many attractions including a scenic railway, theater, Ferris wheel, and roller-coaster.
1957: A dynamite demolition reduces the last spans of the Ash-Consaul Street Bridge over the Maumee River to rubble as spectators look on.
March 20
1874: Peter Navarre, an early frontiersman, pioneer of Toledo, and hero of war of 1812, dies at age 89 in a hotel room at Front and Main Streets.
1905: It’s reported that fights are breaking out among the chorus girls at the Empire Burlesque Theater over the popularity of Maude O'Dell, who some girls say is too popular with the audience.
1919: A major blaze roars through the C.E. Powers Elevator at Genoa, causing some $50,000 in damage. Powers was able to secure more rail cars from Toledo so farmers could safely store their grain.
1922: After failing to report to local hospitals for “treatment” of social diseases, 68 Toledo women are arrested and sent to a detention home.
1943: Ceremonies are held in East Toledo as the keel is laid for the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw at the Toledo Shipyards. It would remain on the Great Lakes for 60 years of operation.
1993: Owens Technical College wins its second straight Division II national championship in men’s basketball. Lake graduate Brad Delventhal and Stritch grad Carey Fouty are members of the team. Stritch’s Tom Patterson and Genoa’s Dennis Goodman were on the previous year’s title team. Both teams were coached by Eastwood grad Jim Welling. Current University of Toledo men’s basketball associate head coach Jeff Massey was the leading scorer for both teams.
March 21
1901: Major Samuel Jones gives a campaign speech at the Wheeler House and addresses numerous topics, also quipping that “when people learn to sing more, then wars will stop and peace will come, because you can’t fight and sing at the same time.”
1914: Toledo police show off a new police vehicle. Serving as both a car and ambulance, it can travel at speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.
1920: Strict enforcement of a ban on public dances on Sundays is now underway.
1931: Sinclair Lewis, a Nobel prize-winning author for literature, appears in Toledo at the Valentine Theater but tells reporters he'd rather be home slopping his hogs on his farm in Vermont.
1972: Two men are abducted during robberies of convenience stores in Toledo. Both bodies are later found shot to death in rural Monroe County.
