Toledo Time Travels

Toledo Time Travels is your source for the Toledo story—past, present, and future. We host engaging conversations about local history venues, long heard about but rarely seen spaces, Glass City artifacts, and historical preservation.

Bill Moore is Born

1931: Bill Moor , American actor (Kramer vs. Kramer, The Devil's Advocate, Hanky Panky) is born in Toledo. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Toledo Scale is Incorporated

1901: The Toledo Computing Scale and Cash Register Company is incorporated, later called Toledo Scale, and known for its slogan: "No Springs, Honest Weight." 1949: The first practical rectangular TV tube is announced in Toledo. For more Toledo ...…

Jack Kennedy Gunned Down

1933: Club owner and bootlegger, Jack Kennedy is murdered on Edgewater Drive in Point Place. It was the culmination of Mr. Kennedy's Prohibition-era battles with the Licavoli gang, led by Yonnie Licavoli. For more Toledo history, visit ...…

David Stanley Smith is Born

1877: David Stanley Smith, American composer (Merrymount) is born in Toledo. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Dempsey-Willard Fight

1880: George Mullin, baseball pitcher (Detroit Tigers; no-hitter 1912) is born in Toledo. 1919: In what Jimmy Breslin wrote was the birth of the "roaring twenties," Jack Dempsey meets Jess Willard in the "fight of the century" in an 80,000-seat ...…

Swayne Field Opens

1909: Opening day at Swayne Field, Toledo's tenth home to organized baseball since 1883. Noah H. Swayne, the donor of the land, hoped to change Toledo's poor baseball image by constructing the finest ballpark the minors had ever known. Swayne Field ...…

Jamie Farr is Born

1934: Jamie Farr, actor (Klinger on M*A*S*H, AfterMASH) is born in Toledo. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Burt Reynolds Starts a Toledo Tradition

1972: Burt Reynolds opens with Lois Nettleton in "The Rainmaker" at Ken Shaw's Summer Star Theatre at the Toledo Masonic Auditorium. It was during this theatre run in Toledo that Reynolds stopped by Tony Packo's and casually signed a bun to start a ...…

Millburn Comes to Town; Ed Ford Passes Away

1873: The city of Toledo offered a 32-acre parcel to the Milburn Wagon Company in Auburndale, a newly established western suburb just west of the city line. Purchased for a discounted $30,000, the Monroe Street property was located adjacent to the ...…

Mother Teresa Speaks in Toledo

1976: Mother Teresa speaks to an overflow crowd of 2,700 people at the Masonic Auditorium. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Marlene Dietrich Leads Jeep Day Rally

1942: Actress Marlene Dietrich leads a Jeep Day Rally in downtown Toledo. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Marcy Kaptur is Born

1946: Marcia Carolyn (Marcy) Kaptur, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is born in Toledo. After attending St. Ursula Academy in Toledo, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968 and completed a Master of Urban ...…

Roger Bresahan is Born

1879: Roger Bresnahan, American Baseball Hall of Fame catcher, outfielder and manager (St. Louis Cardinals; invented shin guards and batting helmets after getting beaned in the head ) is born in Toledo. For more Toledo history, visit ...…

Kate Wilhelm is Born

1928: Kate Wilhelm, American fiction author (Hugo Award: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang) is born in Toledo. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Blanche Scott Arrives in Toledo

1910: Blanche Scott arrives in Toledo in a customized Overland runabout, fitted with its own built-in wardrobe trunk and toilet, on her way to San Francisco to become the second woman to complete a cross-country trip by automobile. For more Toledo ...…

Auto-Lite Strike Ends

1934: Auto-Lite and FLU 18384 reached a tentative agreement settling the Auto-Lite Strike. The union won a 5 percent wage increase, and a minimum wage of 35 cents an hour. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Herb Shriner is Born in Toledo

1918: Herb Shriner, American humorist and TV host (Herb Shriner Show) is born in Toledo.…

Joseph Harsch Born in Toledo

1905: Joseph C. Harsch, American newscaster (Background) and author (''At the Hinge of History: A Reporter's Story'') is born in Toledo.…

Battle of Chestnut Hill

1934: National Guard troops guarding the Auto-Lite plant during the 1934 Battle of Toledo, fired into the crowd while trying to push them away from the plant, up Chestnut Street—killing 27-year-old Frank Hubay (shot four times) and 20-year-old ...…

Battle of Toledo

On this day... 1934: The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo," a five-day melee between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

Kiwanis Club is Chartered and Jack Ford is Born

1916: The Kiwanis Club of Toledo is chartered. Known today as the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Toledo. 1947: John Marshall "Jack" Ford is born in Springfield, Ohio. After obtaining his Master's degree in Public Administration and his law degree from ...…

Teresa Brewer is Born in Toledo

1931: Teresa Brewer, American pop and jazz singer (Put Another Nickel In) is born in Toledo. 1975: The Tiedtke's Department Store drew thousands to downtown Toledo when the store known for its circus-like atmosphere and the smell of its Parkwood ...…

Dudley's Massacre

1813: On the bloodiest day of the first siege of Fort Meigs, nearly 600 men are lost to a combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia, and Native American warriors. Despite this major loss to the Americans however, many Native Americans ...…

WDHO Goes Live!

1966: WDHO (now WNWO) TV channel 24 in Toledo (ABC) begins broadcasting For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

First Seige of Fort Meigs Begins and Moses Walker joins the Toledo Blue Stockings

1813: British artillery opened fire on Fort Meigs in what would become known as the First Siege of Fort Meigs. The bombardment carried on for five days, but the Americans within the fort held on until reinforcements, in the form of 1,200 Kentucky ...…

L-O-F is Born

1974: Eric Kripke, American television writer, director and producer (Supernatural) is born in Toledo. 1930: Directors of the Libbey-Owens Glass Company and Edward Ford Plate Glass Company meet in New York to approve their merger into the ...…

Erie & Kalamazoo is Chartered

1833: the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad was chartered in the Territory of Michigan to run from the former Port Lawrence, Michigan (now Toledo), northwest to Adrian on the River Raisin. For more Toledo history, visit www.holytoledohistory.com.…

TMA is Founded!

1901: After the success of its first exhibit in a rented room in the Gardner Building in January, the Toledo Museum of Art is officially founded. Today, what started out with 120 members and a collection consisting of two paintings is considered one ...…

Edward Drummond Libbey is Born on this Day

1854: Edward Drummond Libbey is born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Regarded as the father of the glass industry in Toledo, Libbey moved his father's glass company to Toledo and renamed it the Libbey Glass Company in 1888. For more Toledo history, ...…