Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
March 30
1902: Toledoans are shocked at the murder of seven-year-old Arthur Shanteau by his playmate, 13-year-old Daniel Rosenbecker. They were fishing near the river when the victim was bludgeoned with a sharp spade.
1919: Thousands of supporters of Eugene V. Debs storm Memorial Hall where the socialist leader was not allowed to give a speech. Mobs spill onto streets of downtown, clashing with police.
1921: At a shop on Ontario Street, a live concert is heard from Pittsburgh on a “wireless telephone,” or radio. The News Bee opines that these new instruments may become popular in the future.
March 31
1892: A mob of 1,000 people breaks into the county jail in Findlay and abducts Joseph Lytle, who is accused of killing his wife and daughter with an ax. The mob drags Lytle outside and hangs him from a bridge, then riddles his body with bullets.
1909: Toledo labor official expresses concern that young boys aren’t entering the harness-making trade. He fears there will soon be no harness-makers left in the city.
1924: Toledo police deploy their new “sponge squad” designed to clean up the illegal booze in the city, rounding up over 70 people for bootlegging.
1973: Singer Patrice Munsel, while performing at the Masonic Auditorium in Toledo, is reunited with her pet boa constrictor "George" after leaving it in a Michigan hotel.
April 1
1900: Toledo Bee interviews 70-year-old Gene Giggins, a crippled Civil War vet with a “keen eye” who makes his living walking the streets of Toledo looking for lost items and then claiming the reward money. He says he makes up to $20 a month.
1903: Ground is broken for the Toledo/Port Clinton/Lakeside Railroad, the first interurban passenger and freight line to run eastward from Toledo.
1918: Toledo police officer Louis Jazwiecki dies after being shot the previous night during an arrest attempt of two men at Erie and Walnut.
1941: WPA announces opening of second “toy lending library” in Toledo to help poor children.
1969: City bulldozers destroy the 50-year-old “Garden of Eden” created by minister Cassius Hettinger at his home on Upton Avenue. The bizarre edifice of sea shells and concrete hosted many weddings and busloads of weekend tourists.
April 2
1901: Word comes from Port Clinton that Mr. and Mrs. David Nash, 70 and 68, both died at the same hour of 5 p.m. the day before from old age.
1908: The new stone interurban bridge at Waterville is nearing completion after lengthy controversy about its placement near a rock outcropping known as Roche De Boeuf.
1920: Tiedtke’s says it expects to sell more than 1,000 bunny rabbits during Easter this year.
1943: Nelson and Bernard Moss, a father and son from Toledo, enlist in the Navy and are now at Great Lakes Training Center near Chicago.
1997: Toledo scientist and visionary, Lyman Spitzer Jr., passes away at the age of 82. He is best known as the man who envisioned the Hubble Space Telescope and oversaw the project.
April 3
1924: Canton Avenue druggist Meyer Selzman is arrested in the deaths of 18 men, who died from poisoned alcohol from his drugstore. Selzman is convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.
1931: Toledo Parks Department head, Fred Bradley, plans to start a 12-acre orchard near Whitehouse to supply fresh fruit to welfare recipients.
1957: Flame and smoke kill 27 race horses in blaze at Fort Miami Racetrack at Maumee. The cause of the tragedy is unknown.
1977: Lucille, a hit song for Kenny Rogers, reaches number one on the record charts. The song took place in a "bar room in Toledo."
April 4
1915: The Niagara Hotel on Summit Street is destroyed by fire. A newlywed couple from Adrian, Michigan is killed in the blaze.
1919: A Toledo parade of thousands turns out to welcome home the more than 1,500 soldiers who had been serving in the trenches of Europe in World War I.
1920: Safecrackers break into the safe at Grace Smith’s cafeteria in downtown Toledo, getting away with $1,000 in cash.
April 5
1897: Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones, Toledo’s most colorful and controversial mayor, is elected to office. The Welsh-born, self-made millionaire was an ardent social reformer and considered one of the most influential mayors in the U.S.
1918: School teacher Grace Doyle is hailed as a hero for flagging down a troop train near Perrysburg that was about to hit a saboteur's barricade of spiked planks across the tracks.
1957: Lake freighter, Champlain, is ripped loose from its moorings on Maumee River by 90 mph winds and crashes into the Fassett St. Bridge in South Toledo. The bridge was never rebuilt.
1980: Sister Margaret Ann Pahl is stabbed to death in the Mercy Hospital chapel. The case, however, was not brought to trial until 2006 when Catholic priest, Father Gerald Robinson, was convicted in a nationally televised trial.
