Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
May 17
1838: The last rain falls in the Toledo area before the great drought gets underway.
1899: A weather observer reports that more than four inches of rain fell in a 12-hour downpour in western Ottawa County.
1913: A Toledo fire engine becomes motorized as it is hooked up to a gasoline tractor and can reach speeds of up to 25 miles-per-hour. It was one of three given to Toledo on a trial basis.
1919: Construction gets underway for an 80,000-seat arena at Bay View Park to host the expected large crowds for the Jack Dempsey-Jess Willard fight in July.
May 18
1825: A massive tornado rolls through Burlington Township in Seneca County, described by witnesses as a "violent fury that uprooted entire forests of large trees, hurled animals skyward and made the ground rumble beneath one’s feet." Three people died in the sparsely populated area of the county.
1882: The passenger ship, “American Eagle,” explodes near Kelly’s Island. Ten people are killed.
1929: Forest Park, billed as “Toledo’s Greatest Amusement Park,” opens for the summer on what is now State Route 51 near Genoa.
1953: The newly built Toledo Fire Station #1 at Huron and Orange Streets downtown opens.
1954: Black leaders in Toledo hail the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling to end segregation in public schools.
2001: Ground is broken for the long awaited $227 million Maumee River crossing project, later named the Veterans Memorial Skyway Bridge.
May 19
1889: Salem United Methodist Church in East Toledo is dedicated.
1904: Independent saloon keepers in Toledo ask police to start cleaning up the so-called “badlands” section of the city where houses of ill repute and saloons operate. They claim these places are morally unfit for consumers of liquor.
1931: Toledo police officer Edward O’Briest is shot to death by an unknown gunman while on an undercover assignment in the 300 block of Moorish Avenue.
1953: Toledo voters approve a 3.5-mill levy to build the new Toledo Express Airport.
1963: The Detwiler Swamp of Toledo becomes the site of a sham battle with live explosions and gunfire, which is part of a demonstration of U.S. military power. Thousands attend the spectacle to witness the detonations and mock battle scenario.
May 20
1898: Dow and Snell Wholesale Warehouse is destroyed by a fire, and Captain Oscar Will is killed during the blaze.
1906: Ice dealers in the city of Toledo take heat from the Lucas County prosecutor for gouging residents with high prices. Housewives reportedly stop buying ice because the dealers’ tactics have hurt the poor.
1920: The outlaw Cowboy Hill Gang stages a daring daylight robbery on the streets of Delta. Residents were terrorized in the gun battle as the gang had stolen $20,000 from the local bank. Joe Muzzio and his gang were eventually caught in a shootout with Toledo police.
1926: Toledo police officers and a gang of safe crackers have a gun battle in the offices of the Brundage Brothers Co. on Ottawa Street.
1961: Fourteen Native American bones and skulls are found near Wales Road in Rossford by four boys who were digging near the city dump.
1965: The Beach Boys play at the Toledo Sports Arena with opening act The Vandaliers, a Toledo band.
May 21
1904: Popular theater chain owner Frank Burt is shot by his wife in front his own theater on Jefferson Avenue in Toledo. Burt survives the shooting and tells police that his wife was jealous of a showgirl he was having an affair with. Mrs. Burt is arrested and dies six months later. Burt later married the showgirl.
1920: A search is on for three “desperate” men including one convicted killer who escaped the Ottawa County Jail in Port Clinton. Harry Brown, convicted of killing a Graytown man, is freed when other members of his bank robber gang sawed through the bars of the jail from the outside. Two of the men, including Brown, were recaptured weeks later in Cleveland.
1931: A major fire occurs at the National Milling Company silos on Front Street.
1976: Governor Jim Rhodes, in a speech to area business types, promises that Northwest Ohio will get a major state park in the future with lodges, golf courses, camping and recreational facilities. That state park would come to fruition many years later as Maumee Bay State Park.
May 22
1852: The first steam-powered train ran from Toledo to Chicago.
1893: Fire Engine House #1 at 614 Lagrange Street is abandoned by the fire department, and it is later used as a police substation and for mounted patrol.
1925: Hundreds of folk flock to the newly built Madison Gardens Ballroom (Madison and 15th) for its grand opening. The club was later renamed the “Trianon Ballroom” and would become one of Toledo’s top dance and music venues during the 1940s and 50s.
1959: The I-280 highway is dedicated as the Detroit-Toledo Expressway, the first so-called “expressway” in the area. It was dubbed the "Seaway Freeway" and hailed as a key for future growth of the area.
1979: Owens-Illinois headquarters hosts a groundbreaking along the downtown Toledo riverfront. It sets a new world record for the number of people taking part in a groundbreaking as 5,000 Toledoans grabbed a shovel to help.
1984: Violence erupts on the picket lines of AP Parts on Matzinger Road as union members protest the company's use of non-union labor. One hundred and twenty people are arrested and jailed.
May 23
1908: An air ship, piloted by Toledo's Roy Knabenshue, crashes into the centerfield fence during a ball game at Armory Park. No one is seriously injured.
1921: Future famous singer and Toledo resident Helen O'Connell is born in Lima. She grew up in Toledo and when she and her sister Alice were teenagers, they sang duets on radio stations in Toledo. By 1940, Helen was considered one of the best female singers in America.
1944: The Toledo Mud Hens had a dismal season in 1944, and on this day at Swayne Field, suffered their most humiliating defeat in Hens’ history, losing to the Milwaukee Brewers 28-0. The newspaper writers called it the "Granddaddy of all Wallopings." Half of the fans went home by the fifth inning.
1975: A National Guard F-100 crashes at the Toledo Express Airport, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot.
1988: Legendary UT football quarterback, Chuck Ealey, who led the Rockets to three undefeated seasons, 1969-71, is inducted into the first class of the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame.
