Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Nov. 9
1879: A massive blaze wipes out most of downtown Napoleon, including the courthouse and 22 buildings.
1893: A Bradner-area train crash causes the deaths of four people.
1899: “Train wreckers” cause the derailment of a Detroit-bound train near Alexis Road. Three people are killed.
1913: The so called "Great Lakes Hurricane” whips across the region. Lakes are in chaos as 19 ships are lost in the storms, while 250 men perish in the cyclonic winds as part of the worst night of terror in Great Lakes history.
1919: All streetcars in Toledo are ordered off the streets after voters oust Toledo Railway and Light Company in a dispute over fares. The city was without rail streetcars for a month.
1931: Toledo police confiscate what they say was $6,000 worth of “loco weed” or also known as marijuana from a restaurant on Washington Street. Police say the loco weed has a “dreamy effect” on the smoker.
1956: A major blaze destroys several buildings in downtown Bowling Green, resulting in a half-million dollars in damage.
1961: Toledo's Ella P. Stewart School is dedicated on Avondale Avenue, honoring one of the first African American female pharmacists in the nation. Stewart made Toledo her home and was a nationally recognized civil rights and community leader.
Nov. 10
1925: The Temple Theater in Toledo advertises that a Hollywood film director is shooting a movie on the Temple stage every day at 3 p.m. called Toledo's Hero with a local cast.
1941: A train accident near Dunkirk, Ohio, south of Findlay, kills 12 people when passenger cars are overturned.
1972: Jim Uebelhart, a long-time veteran news broadcaster on WSPD radio, announces his retirement at the end of the year.
1975: The giant ore freighter, Edmund Fitzgerald, breaks up and sinks in a vicious storm on Lake Superior. Twenty-nine sailors are lost, many from the Toledo area, including the captain, Ernest McSorley.
2001: Killer storms strike Northwest Ohio as five tornadoes touch down, doing damage to numerous cities and killing five people from Van Wert to Republic, Ohio.
Nov. 11
1918: Germany surrenders. World War I is over. Toledoans jam the streets by the thousands for celebrations, flag raisings, and dances. Schools and factories are closed. Saloons are shut down to keep a lid on potential violence.
1934: Gangster Thomas "Yonnie" Lacavoli begins serving his prison term at the Ohio State Penitentiary for murder and other crimes in the Toledo area.
1937: More than 100 students at Adrian High School walk out of classes to protest having to attend school on Armistice Day.
1974: The first Toledo police K-9 unit graduates from training.
1991: Ohio's “Merci" train car, which was a gift from France, is re-dedicated at Camp Perry. It is one of 50 French boxcars filled with gifts for America's generosity to the French people.
Nov. 12
1882: St. Anthony’s Catholic Church at Nebraska and Junction in Toledo is dedicated.
1906 Red McQuire, the accused killer of Perrysburg marshal Frank Thornton, escapes from the Wood County Jail with two other inmates. He surrenders several years later.
1907: The Hercules nitroglycerin plant in Bradner explodes. Two men are killed, and many others are injured, while much of the village is leveled by blast.
1937: Two Toledo city health department workers are killed when their ambulance slams into a stalled steel truck on Anthony Wayne Bridge.
1940: Gale force winds blast the city of Toledo for two days, causing heavy damage and stranding dozens of duck hunters in Maumee Bay.
1952: John “Crane Neck” Nugent, a mobster from Toledo, is declared dead after going missing for 22 years. He was one of the suspects in the 1928 machine gun slaying of Toledo patrolman George Zientara on Upton Avenue.
Nov. 13
1877: It is reported in Toledo papers that Charles Clark of Genoa was killed by a train at Long’s Crossing near Millbury when his horse and wagon were hit on the tracks after he spent the day drinking in Genoa’s saloons.
1884: A giant explosion occurs at the Rummel nitroglycerin plant in South Toledo near present-day Harvard School and Delaware Creek. The blast involved 20,000 pounds of explosives and was so powerful that windows and walls of homes and businesses were cracked for miles around, including schools in Maumee and Perrysburg. The blast was even felt as far away as Canada.
1888: Northwest Ohio’s natural gas boom begins to fade after years of huge production.
1894: The Lamson’s department store opens at Huron and Jefferson.
1899: A massive nitroglycerin blast occurs near Gibsonburg. The blast is felt for miles.
1940: The first Toledo-made Willys Jeep is field-tested at Camp Holabird, Maryland.
1944: Agents raid the newly opened gambling den, the El Rancho Club on Woodville Road near Millbury. It had been open only four days.
1947: Firefighters battled a major blaze at Roanoke Hotel and Morton Storage in downtown Toledo on Superior Street.
1947: The Toledo Sports Arena debuts and opens its doors for fans. It would remain open for nearly 60 years, but was demolished in 2007 to make way for the development of that area along the riverfront.
1962: Prominent vice president of the UAW in Toledo, Richard Gosser, is arrested by Federal agents at UAW headquarters on West Woodruff and charged with conspiring to defraud the IRS. He is charged, along with an aide and a figure in the area, for a numbers racket.
Nov. 14
1901: A runaway horse on Summit Street crashes into a horse and buggy, throwing that horse through a plate glass window at Harry Bower's saloon. The runaway horse was finally brought to a stop by a brave Toledo policeman, Emmert Cairl, who grabbed the frightened animal by the bit and held on for dear life.
1923: The world-renowned Vatican’s Sistine Chapel Choir performs at the Toledo Coliseum.
1925: Toledo residents mourn the passing of the city's most generous and prominent citizen as Edward Drummond Libbey, a glassmaker, industrialist, and art benefactor, dies of pneumonia at age 71.
1947: Humorist and author PJ O’Rourke is born in Toledo.
1953: Toledo song writer Joe Murphy of the Ice House Quarter dies at age of 86. Murphy wrote the popular "We're Strong for Toledo" in 1909.
1972: Northeast gale force winds force Lake Erie waters into the neighborhoods of Point Place, causing major flooding in the area. Hundreds are evacuated, and hundreds of homes are flooded out.
Nov. 15
1906: It is noted by Toledo Public School officials that the autumn "nutting season" is underway when people gather nuts for the winter. As a result, school truancy rates are “alarmingly” higher than normal.
1932: A major snowstorm of 12 to 15 inches hits the area, signifying the worst November storm on record.
1934: A gang of eight bandits seize the small town of Cygnet in Wood County in a scheme to rob the local bank. All phone lines in the city are cut. Residents are shot at on the streets and blasts of nitroglycerin shake the town as the bandits try to break into the local bank safe. Sheriff’s deputies arrive and the bandits escape without getting the payroll cash inside the safe.
1952: The Northwest Ohio area is suffering worst drought in more than 20 years. Water has to be hauled in by truck to Fostoria, Delta, and Archbold.
