Arnold Fitness weekend

The Arnold Fitness weekend annually draws 10,000 body builders, martial artists and fitness advocates to a weekend of festivities in Columbus and to compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.
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Bicycle Museum of Americ

Check out the incredible Bicycle Museum of America at 7 W. Monroe St., New Breman.
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Nick Lachey

February 26, 2006 – Cincinnati’s Nick Lachey, who once had a job delivering LaRosa’s pizzas while enrolled at the Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts High School, releases the single What’s Left of Me. Lachey found fame and fortune in the teen, heart-throb group 98 Degrees, which sold 10 million records.
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Dunbar House State Memorial

Visit the Dunbar House State Memorial maintained by the Ohio Historical Society in Dayton. The home of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, considered an African-American poet laureate, still has many of his personal items and furnishings. Phone: 800-860-0148.
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Zits

February 24, 1954 – Pulitzer prize-winning political cartoonist Jim Borgman, co-creator of Zits, a comic strip about the life of a teenager named Jeremy that appears in 1,500 newspapers worldwide, is born in Price Hill, a neighborhood in Cincinnati.
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Jimmy Garrett

February 23, 1966 – My World is Empty Without You by the Supremes hits the charts at No. 5. Cleveland native Jimmy Garrett, who studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and played the jazz clubs of Tia Juana, Town Casino and Cedar Gardens, was the musical director and road bassist for the Supremes. He would go on to play with Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, George Benson, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson.

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Titans of America

February 22, 1903 - Tom Jenkins of Bedford defeats reigning heavyweight champion Frank Gotch in Cleveland. It was the first meeting of these turn-of-the-century titans of American wrestling and Gotch’s signature move, a toe hold, wasn’t enough to defeat Jenkins. Champion Jenkins would go on to teach hand-to-hand combat at West Point.
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John Glenn

February 21, 1962 – John Glenn is recovering a day after he became the first American to orbit the globe in a four-hour, 55-minute flight that took him around the earth three times. Kid from Ohio - first American to go global, imagine that...
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Nancy Wilson

February 20, 1937 – Song stylist Nancy Wilson is born in Chillicothe. Her father, Olden, who worked in a steel foundry, loved jazz and she and he would listen to Billy Eckstein, Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton’s band. Wilson won a singing contest as a student at West High School in Columbus and never looked back. By 1989 she had recorded 52 albums, starred in 17 TV shows and played Carnegie Hall.
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Bootsy Collins

February 19, 1963 – The mother of Cincinnati’s Bootsy Collins, 12, buys him a guitar from a now-closed Sears Store on Reading Road. It costs $29.95 and would soon become a bass because brother Catfish already played lead. Collins would pluck his bass all the way to stardom. As a 17-year-old, he played bass for James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. Bot not with that guitar. James wouldn't let it up on stage.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE February 18, 1913 – Only four days old, Woody Hayes settles into his parents’ house in Clifton. Hayes would win five national championships as football coach of the Ohio State University. February 18, 1934 - Skip Battin is born in Gallipolis. Battin learns to play bass and becomes a member of The Byrds and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He died from Alzheimer's Disease on July 6, 2003 in Salem, Ore.
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Brrrrrrr

February 17, 1910 – Snow up to 20 inches deep riding on 40 mph winds paralyze the Buckeye State. Drifts were 10 feet deep. Brrrrrrr…
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Archie Comic

Craig Boldman, the Archie Comic artist, picked up his mail at his home in Hamilton today.
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Jean Peters

A fort-like house in a gated, secure, mostly underground compound is built for Jean Peters on a former pasture just northwest of North Canton on the road to Canal Fulton. A film star, she was the common-law wife to mogul Howard Hughes, who lived here from time-to-time and sure did like his security.
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Hugh Downs

February 14, 1921 – Hugh Downs is born in Akron and graduates from Lima’s Shawnee High School. His career in journalism began as an announcer with WLOK of Lima and culminates as host of ABC’s news show 20/20. His career includes NBC’s Today Show and the game show Concentration. In 1985 he was credited with having the most air-time on broadcast television with 15,188 hours – a title he lost to Regis Philbin in 2004.
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Warther Carvings Museum

You simply won’t believe the intricate wooden carvings of the Warther Carvings Museum and Button Collection at 331 Karl Avenue in Dover. Call 330-343-7513 to make certain this American treasure is open.
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Hometown journalism

February 12, 1978: Date that two Dacron, Ohio women are “feared missing” amid volcanic explosions that destroy Japan, according to the front-page headline of the overly parochial “Dacron Republican-Democrat” newspaper, a classic National Lampoon parody of hometown journalism.
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Thomas Alva Edison

February 11, 1847 – Inventor Thomas Alva Edison is born in Milan. Inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, telephone and 1,000 other products, Edison would become known as the Wizard of Menlo Park. A scroll from his first phonograph is in the cornerstone of St. Francis de Salles Church in Walnut Hills in Cincinnati, where a then-unknown Edison recorded the voices of four former Cincinnati mayors at the church dedication in 1888.
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Alcoholics Anonymous

Did you know? Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron at the Mayflower Hotel when visiting businessman Bill Wilson, fighting a temptation to drink, grabs a pay phone that started a chain of phone calls leading to a prayerful meeting with Akron physician Bob Smith.
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William Henry Harrison

February 9, 1773 – Not yet a self-proclaimed clerk and clodhopper, William Henry Harrison is born in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. He moves to southern Ohio and becomes a founder of Cincinnati before running for and becoming president of the United States. He rode to over 300 campaign appearances on horseback.
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Barberton Chicken

February 8, 1933 – Mouth-watering “Barberton Chicken” is born when Milchael and Smilka Topalsky open Belgrade Gardens in Barberton and begin serving chicken fried in pure lard, which makes it exceeding tasty but, well, probably not so heart-healthy.
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Ma Barker gang

February 7, 1934 – The Ma Barker gang kidnaps Edward J. Bremer for $200,000 and launders the cash through the practice of Toledo physician Joseph P. Moran. Moran later brags that he knows enough about the gang that they are in “the palm of my hand.” Not a good boast with psychopaths in the room. Moran’s body is later discovered in Lake Erie. It has no hands.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE

February 6, 1991 – Entertainer Danny Thomas, who grew up in Toledo, dies. Thomas once vowed that if he found success, he would open a hospital dedicated to St. Jude, patron saint of hopeless causes. St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., became his charity of choice.

Did you know? Dayton C. Miller invented the X-Ray machine while at the Case School of Applied Science, now known as Case Western Reserve University.
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Stereoscope viewer

February 5, 1861 - The "Peep Show" machine, also known as a stereoscope viewer, is patented by Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati. Drop a coin into an ornate box, turn the crank and moving pictures appeared.
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Free mail

Free mail is the brainchild of Clevelander Joseph Briggs, who started the practice in 1862. Briggs' next contribution: a uniform for the carriers.
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Putting green cup

Middletown’s George M. Verity, a steel industry mogul and founder of American Rolling Mill Co., invents the putting green cup in 1920. A statue to Verity - not for his invention but because he was a steel magnate who moved his factory from Cincinnati in 1901 to Middletown - still stands on the Middletown campus of Miami University.
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Cleveland Arcade

The nation's first indoor shopping arcade, the Cleveland Arcade, opens in 1890 – not on this date but, still, it’s a good day to visit. The arcade cost $875,000 to build, and John D. Rockefeller, Marcus Hanna and a few others with too much money and wives who wanted to shop built the place. Check out the gargoyles. Modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, the Arcade has a stunning 100-foot-high skylight.
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Clark Gable

February 1, 1901 - Clark Gable born in Cadiz. Before he became famous for his role as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, he was a clerk at Firestone Tire and Rubber in Akron.
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