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'Toledo's 1988 summer was drought ridden and searing, packed with several scorching 100+ days including 104 degrees on June 24 and 103 degrees on July 7; but centered oddly in the middle of the heat wave was the coldest July morning ever in Toledo history when a 40 degree reading was registered on July 1st! Simply amazing!'[ADD TO NOTEBOOK] |
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Did you know…
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In 1850, Toledo became part of the underground railroad carrying slaves to Canada.
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In 1900, the Ottawa Park Golf Course became the first public course west of New York City.
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The Cherry Street Bridge was Toledo’s first public crossing of the Maumee River.
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The Blade, which published its first edition on December 19, 1835, is Toledo’s oldest continuously operating business.
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The first written document which mentions the word 'Toledo' dates from the Roman period, a testimony of the conquest of the city in the year 193 BC, when it was already an important Celtiberian city.
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The first session of the Commissioners of Lucas County was held in Toledo on September 14, 1835.
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Singer Theresa Brewer is from the east side of Toledo and attended Waite High School. Ms. Brewer has recorded nearly 600 different song titles, released on over 150 vinyl singles and more than 80 albums.
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1960 Olympic middleweight champion, Wilbur McClure, attended Scott High School and is possibly the only pro fighter to go on to get his PhD. He currently resides in Boston, MA.
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Light heavyweight champion Archie Moore claimed Toledo as his home town.
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Many famous musicians such as Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, performed downtown at the Civic Auditorium, now the site of the Erie Street Market.
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Much of the University of Toledo was built via the Works Progress Administration (WPA), with the football stadium set like a Blockhouse, similar to that in the Toledo Flag.
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One of the best rock and roll bands in the country during the late 1950s and early 1960s was Johnny and the Hurricanes. All of the members of the original Hurricanes were from the Toledo area. Their leader, Johnny Paris, was from Rossford, Ohio, just across the Maumee River.
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Dominic Labino, of Grand Rapids, OH was a well known glass blower around the world but he also developed the glass fibers to insulate the Apollo, Mercury, and Gemini spacecrafts. His invention of pure silica fiber was used to make the tiles that cover our space shuttles.
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Actor, Jamie Farr of M*A*S*H fame, hails from Toledo, having grown up not far from where Riverside Hospital stands.
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To resolve the brief but fabled Toledo War, Ohio acquired land settlements that became Toledo and Michigan acquired the Upper Peninsula.
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Fort Industry Square is the site of the first American settlement in Toledo.
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The Toledo Mud Hens got its name when it used to play weekend games at Bay View Park, which was surrounded by marshland, home to the strange birds that are also known as the American coot.
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Tony Packo's hot dog sauce has been in outer space aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1997.
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Some of Toledo's nicknames over the years have included "The Glass City", "Frogtown", and "A Renaissance City".
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Ohio Governor, Robert Lucas, serving 1832-36, stamped his name forever on Northwest Ohio when he fought to hold onto a strip of land along the Maumee River for Ohio during the Ohio-Michigan border dispute of 1835.
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Toledo’s first railroad, the Erie & Kalamazoo, began operations in 1836. It was the first step leading to Toledo’s development as the third largest rail center in the United States.
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Two of Toledo’s early boom industries were the manufacturing of wagons and bicycles.
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Actress/Dancer, Alyson Stoner, of Cheaper By the Dozen and a background dancer in music videos for artists Missy Elliott and Eminem, was born in Toledo.
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The first recorded visit to the site of Toledo was in 1615 when Etienne Brule, a French scout, is believed to have explored the region. The area was occupied by the warlike Erie Indians.
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St. Vincent’s Hospital, renamed the St. Vincent Medical Center in 1983, was the first hospital in Toledo founded in 1855.
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Toledo Inventor, Michael Owens developed the world's first automated bottle-blowing machine, revolutionizing the bottle industry.
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On January 15, 1936, the first building to be completely covered in glass was constructed in Toledo. It was a building for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company and marked a milestone in architectural design that eventually led to the International style of architecture.
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The Toledo Zoo, consistently rated as one of the nation's ten best, was the first zoo to feature a hippoquarium-style exhibit.
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The Mud Hens are one of minor league baseball's oldest teams in continuous operation, having first played in 1896.
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There are 9 Metro parks and over 140 public parks in the city of Toledo.
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The local blues & jazz group, The Griswolds, including original members Art & Roman Griswold, Funky Monkey and the Sax Man, are known to be some of the best blues artists around - even in many European countries.
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In honor of the "sister city" relationship between Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain, theToledo Zoo incorporated Spanish architecture into their building design throughout the zoo.
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The Blair Lithophane Museum at Toledo Botanical Garden houses the largest collection of lithophanes in the world featuring 3,200 pieces.
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The Libbey family's vision in creating the Toledo Museum of Art was to ensure the public would be able enjoy fine art from around the world without ever paying an admission. This still holds true today, thanks to the generous endowment left by the Libbeys.
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The awe-inspiring beaty of the Peristyle Theatre at the Toledo Museum of Art was mirrored after the ancient Greek theatres.
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The Toledo Zoo was started in 1900 with the donation of a woodchuck to the City of Toledo.
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The Toledo Yact Club is among the oldest yacht clubs in North-America. It was founded in 1865.
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Before hitting it big in the early 90's and introducing the world to "grunge rock", Nirvana performed in Toledo in October 1989 at Frankie's in east Toledo!
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Lourdes College in Sylvania was founded in 1958 and will celebrate its 50th year anniversary in 2008.
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The Toledo Zoo has three of the four baby polar bears born in the United States in 2006.
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George Carruth carved his first design at the age of seven. He carved a dog out of a bar of soap!
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Did you know that Schedel Arboretum & Gardens planted over 15,000 annuals in 2006?
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The S.S. Willis B. Boyer, launched in 1911 under the name Co. James M. Schoonmaker, was the largest bulk freighter in the world.
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Toledo native Jason Cameron was the one of the carpenters on the hit TLC show, "While You Were Out", and is currently the host of "Desperate Landscapes" on the DIY Network. He has also done commercials and appeared in TV shows like "Sex in the City", "Guiding Light" and "All My Children".
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Accumulating snowfall in the months of May and October are extremely rare episodes in Toledo. Strangely 1989 saw both! (On May 7th & October 19th). It's the only time Toledo has ever had this occur in the same calender year!
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While Jackie Robinson in 1947 is widely regarded as the first black player in Major League baseball history when he broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the actual first black Major Leaguer was Moses Fleetwood Walker when he played for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884 of the American Association-a Major League team and league that year in the pre-modern era.
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Toledo born Gretchen Bleiler was voted Female Snowboarder of the Year for 2006 and has won numerous awards including an Olymic Silver Medal and Multiple X Games and Gravity Games Gold medals.
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Toledo has long been rumored to have the “most restaurants per capita” in the country.
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A native of Toledo, activist Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine and was one of the most visible leaders of the Feminist Movement.
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The Toledo Zoo serves as the number one tourist attraction in Toledo.
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The oldest building still standing in Toledo is the Oliver House in downtown Toledo.
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Actress Katie Holmes, star of Dawson’s Creek and Batman Begins, hails from Toledo.
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The Toledo Mud Hens used to be known as the Toledo Glass Sox in honor of the City’s glass history.
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Toledo’s Historic Old West End has the largest collection of Victorian homes east of the Mississippi.
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The origin of the exclamation, “Holy Toledo!” is unknown, but has been the focus of much speculation. Suggestions include: the heavy concentration of churches located on Collingwood Avenue; the mob completing a job in Detroit, Cleveland or elsewhere and then retreating to Toledo – the “Holy Land”; and the high proportion of bars to churches.
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The first permanent white settlers who entered into the Black Swamp came in 1832. It took these aggressive pioneers 10 full years to dig 100 miles of drainage ditches so that the land was able to be farmed.
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In 1833 the Villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula were consolidated. Because there was no other community on the Western Continent bearing the name of “Toledo,” several persons interested in Spanish history suggested that this be the name of the merged villages. Toledo was incorporated as a city in 1837.
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The “Blizzard of ‘78” paralyzed the city of Toledo for four days. Troops and equipment of the U.S. Fifth Army landed in Toledo on January 29 after a state of emergency was declared January 26-27, 1978.
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Opening in 1929 and demolished in 1965, the Paramount Theater, located at the corners of Huron and Adams, reigned supreme as Toledo's most ornate and beautiful theater.
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The Veterans' Glass City Skyway (formerly known as the Maumee River Crossing) is currently the largest single project ever undertaken by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)!
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The Haunted Hydro in Fremont, OH, was built in a 1911 Hydro Electric power plant and is said to be really haunted.
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Olympian Devin Vargas, a Start High School graduate, was captain of the Boxing Team in 2004 and was trained by Waite High School graduate, Gil Yanez, a Golden Gloves Champ.
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On November 26, 2007 the City of Toledo was awarded a third place Silver Award at the global Liveable Community Awards ceremony in London, England.
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Inverness Country Club designed by Donald Ross, has hosted five United States Golf Association championships.
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Titgemeier's Feed Store on Western Avenue is the second-oldest continuously operating business in Toledo -and the oldest at the same location. Five generations of this proud German family have managed the business, selling grain for livestock until the community grew up around them. Now the business supplies seed for exotic birdfeeders and grain for beer making.
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Elvis once performed at the Civic Auditorium in downtown Toledo, now the site of the Erie Street Market.
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The Toledo Museum of Art is world-renowned and is often chosen as one of a few select museums in the world to receive major exhibits.
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Toledo was built on a swamp and used to be referred to as “frogtown.”
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Toledo was once located in Michigan, but became part of Ohio after the Ohio/Michigan War.
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Ottawa Park Golf Course is recognized as the oldest municipally owned golf course.
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Byron Nelson was the head professional at Inverness from 1940-45.
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Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones played in their first Open at Inverness in 1920.
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The Toledo Zoo was recently voted among the top 10 family-friendly zoos in the country by a recent survey conducted by Child Magazine.
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The Toledo area played a major role in the War of 1812 through the erection of Fort Meigs in 1813 by William Henry Harrison.
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In 1983, Toledo elected its first woman mayor into office, Donna Owens.
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Toledo and Tony Packo’s Café were made famous by Jamie Farr, a.k.a. Corporal Klinger on the TV show M.A.S.H.
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Burt Reynolds was the first person to sign a Tony Packo hotdog bun.
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Toledoan Art Tatum overcame poverty and blindness to become a top ranking jazz musician.
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