Bellefontaine

December 31, 1891 - Bellefontaine has the dubious distinction of having the oldest concrete street in the U.S., which is Court Street at the Logan County Courthouse. It was poured on this day. The town also has the shortest concrete street, McKinley Street, which is eight-feet long and was poured in front of the courthouse hitching posts. Happy New Years Bellefontaine!
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LeBron James

December 30, 1984 – LeBron James, nicknamed King James, is born in Akron. He is drafted out of high school to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers and will eventually sign a $90 million endorsement deal with Nike. His biggest achievement: a gold medal in the 2008 Olympic games.

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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE December 29, 1876 – Only 87 of 159 passengers survive the Ashtabula train disaster when a bridge over Ashtabula creek collapses. Dozens die from the coal stove fire. Railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt dies within a week from the horror of it all.
December 29, 1925 - Paul B. "Pete" Dye is born in Urbana. He would help tend his father's 9-hole course and then go on to become the world's greatest designer of golf courses.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE December 28, 1869 – William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon patents chewing gum and American high school girls have never been the same since. December 28, 1978 – Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes steps out onto the field and punches Clemson defensive lineman Charlie Bauman after the middle guard intercepts a pass and heads down the sideline near the Buckeye bench. Hayes is fired.
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World’s Largest Rocking Chair

Only a Buckeye would build a chair this big. What must be the World’s Largest Rocking Chair with a seat at 8-feet high beckons weary, Bunyanesque travelers at 1933 Hwy 45, Austinburg.
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Miami University

The campus at Miami University, known as the Cradle of Coaches and alma mater of Paul Brown, is quiet today with all the students home for the holiday break.
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Fascinating Ohio

December 25, 1995 – The long road from Steubenville to global icon ends on Christmas Day for Dino Crocetti, aka Dean Martin, a teenager who once worked in the steel forges of Youngstown. Dean moves to Cleveland then to New Jersey and fame as an actor/singer/comedian with pals like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Nobody will ever again sing Let it Snow with the style of Dean Martin. Merry Christmas, Dino.
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Brent Mason

December 24, 1967 – Now 8, Brent Mason of Van Wert, teaches himself to play guitar by ear - a Christmas carole, perhaps. Mason is discovered by Chet Atkins and will perform with George Strait, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain and Neil Diamond. His guitar is heard on commercials for Sears, Budweiser and Betty Crocker, and Mason wins 14 awards as guitarist of the year from the Academy of Country Music.
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Hank Williams

December 22, 1948 – With Christmas bearing down on them, Hank Williams and his wife, Audrey, who was pregnant with Hank Jr., head to Cincinnati to the former Herzog studios at 811 Race St. downtown to record There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight, Lovesick Blues, I Heard My Mother Praying for Me and Lost on the River with Audrey. Lovesick Blues would pave the way for Williams’ debut at the Grand Old Opry and make him a country music icon.
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Archie Griffin

December 21, 1972 – This football season, OSU running back Archie Griffin, a Columbus native, is enjoying an incredible 8.9 yard average carry. Griffin would go on to become the only back-to-back Heisman Trophy winner in history.
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Fascinating Ohio

December 20, 1999 – Who goes fishing in the dead of winter? Bud Clute boats out onto Lake Erie. The Chardon resident catches a 17.33-pound, 36-inch burbot for a state record.
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Robert Urich

December 19, 1946 – The late Robert Urich, noted for his TV role in Spencer for Hire, Vega$ and 18 other shows, is born in Steubenville.
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Pure Prairie League

December 18, 1974 – Pure Prairie League, a country-rock group born in Waverly in 1969, features Craig Fuller. The group heads into the studio to record its third album. Two Lane Highway was written by Cincinnatian Larry Goshorn, who still performs as the Goshorn Brothers. The Goshorns' departure from the group opened the door for Vince Gill, who would go on to become an American country music legend.
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Orville and Wilbur Wright

December 17, 1903 - Orville Wright climbs into a wood and canvas contraption at Kitty Hawk, N.C., and what follows changes the world forever: 12 seconds and 120 feet of controlled, powered flight.
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Christmas gift to Chillicothe

December 16, 1987 - John Mellencamp, a member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, plays the first of two free shows as a “Christmas gift” to Chillicothe. Mellencamp’s anthem “Small Town” led producer and fan Chip Arlidge at Chillicothe's WCFB-FM to chase Mellencamp for the shows for nearly two years. "And I ain't even done with the night....."
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Alan Freed

December 15, 1921 – Alan Freed is born in Windber, Pa., but the family moves to Salem, Ohio, where he graduates from Salem High School. Freed creates a band – the Sultans of Swing – takes an interest in radio and becomes a DJ at WKBN in Youngstown and WAKR in Akron. Thanks to Cleveland record store owner Leo Mintz, he lands at WJW in Cleveland and hosts a late-night R&B show. Rock and roll is born!
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Mothman

December 14, 1967 – Nobody on this morning notices the Silver Bridge between Kanauga and Point Pleasant, W.Va., is in danger of collapsing but people for the past year have noticed a mysterious seven-foot-tall moth man flying around town, particularly on this night. The bridge collapses within 24 hours. A statue to Mothman is across the river in Point Pleasant.
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Mrs. Jones

December 13, 1972 - Me and Mrs. Jones by soul crooner Billy Paul is atop the charts as a No. 1 single. Written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the song was written after they saw somebody they knew meeting Mrs. Jones, who was from Yellow Springs, in a café they both frequented…”We got a thannnnng, going on…..”
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Survivor

December 12, 2004 – Chris Daugherty, a soft-spoken construction worker and Ohio Department of Transportation crewman from West Jefferson, wins $1 million on the reality TV show Survivor: Vanuatu. His secret? Be the nicest guy.
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Terri Garr

December 11, 1946 – Actress Terri Garr is born in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland. A graduate of Magnificat High School in Rocky River, Garr danced in several Elvis Presley movies, was on The Andy Griffith Show and received an Academy Award nomination for Tootsie. In October 2002, Garr announced that she had multiple sclerosis and became a spokesperson for research for that terrible disease.

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Otis Redding

December 10, 1967 – Otis Redding leaves Cleveland bound for Madison, Wisc. He would never make it. His plane crashes, and all on board die.
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Eddie George

December 9, 1995 – Running back Eddie George wins the 61st Heisman Trophy for his time on the gridiron at Ohio State University. In this 1995 season, he rushed for a school record 1,927 yards and 24 touchdowns to give him an incredible career average of 152.2 yards per game.
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Patterson Homestead

Make plans to enjoy a seasonal three-course holiday dinner amid the candlelight of the Patterson Homestead in Dayton. Call (937) 293-2841 for reservations at the restored house/museum.
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Oooops

December 7, 1972 – Lucille Perk, wife of Cleveland mayor Ralph Perk, spurns an invitation to attend a dinner at the White House with President Richard M. Nixon because she didn’t really want to go. So she told her staff to tell the White House staff that it was her bowling night. Oooops. The national media have a field day with that one.
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Hooks

Dec. 6, 1866 – Ernest is Pflueger born. His father, E.A. Pflueger. created fishing lures at night at the kitchen table above his Howard St. grocery store. Thanks to Ernest, Akron would become a fishing lure mecca, and by 1916 would produce more fishing hooks than anyplace else on earth.
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George Armstrong Custer

Dec. 5, 1839 – New Rumley – George Armstrong Custer is born in this eastern Ohio hamlet. A marker and statue dedicated to Custer, who graduated last in his class at West Point and would die with two brothers at Little Big Horn, is along Ohio 646 on the west side of town.
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Only the lonely

Dec. 4, 1988 – Roy Orbison’s last concert occurs in Akron in the Civic Theater two days before his death. Under the ceiling of twinkling stars and puffy clouds, about 2,000 hear his soaring falsetto at the sold-out Sunday night show: "Only the lonely..."
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The fastest man alive

Dec. 3, 2007 – Summit County near Akron in Springfield - Art Arfons dies. Once the fastest man alive, he is buried with wrenches in his hands, a J79 jet operating manual and a jar of his beloved Bonneville salt at his side. He once tested jets by anchoring them to trees in his backyard, which must have annoyed the neighbors terribly.
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John Brown

Dec. 2, 1959 – Akron church bells peal for former Hudson resident and fervent abolitionist John Brown. Brown once herded sheep through what is now downtown Akron while ruminating on the evils of slavery. He raided a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, W. Va., was captured by Robert E. Lee and hanged.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE December 1, 1962 - Bobby Knight, loses the first game he coaches when his JV Black Tigers of Cuyahoga Falls fall 29-30. The loss to the Theodore Roosevelt JV Rough Riders comes on a shot at the buzzer. Knight shakes it off to become the winningest coach in NCAA history. Dec. 1, 1982 – Barney Freeman of Kansas fishes the Huron River and lands a 13.63-pound Coho Salmon that is 34 ¾ inches long and a state record.
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Mark Lewis

November 30, 1969 – Reds fans loved him. Indians fans, too. Mark Lewis is born in Hamilton. His major league baseball career would land him on six teams: the Cleveland Indians, the Cincinnati Reds, the Detroit Tigers, the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles before his career ends at age 31. He retires to his Hamilton hometown.
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Roger Troutman

November 29, 1951 – Electrofunkster Roger Troutman is born in Hamilton. He would pioneer the voice-altering talkbox and vocoder as lead singer of Zapp, co-write More Bounce to the Ounce and be heavily sampled by West Coast rappers, including Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre. He died at 47 from gunshot wounds after being shot by his brother, Larry, who then committed suicide.
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Dahmer

November 28, 1994 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was raised in Bath and was responsible for killing 17 men and boys, is murdered himself by a fellow inmate at Columbia Correction Institute in Wisconsin. Dahmer was serving a 936-year prison sentence.
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Old Man Time

Pete Toth has sculpted Indian heads with his chain saw in dozens of states but his first came in Akron at Sand Run Park on Ohio 18, east of I-77 at Fairlawn Grade School. Maybe today it will have a dusting of snow on it and look like Old Man Time.
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Train Kept A-Rollin

November 26, 1958 – Musician and band leader Tiny Bradshaw, who was born in Youngstown, dies in Cincinnati at the age of 53. His “Train Kept A-Rollin” in 1951 was later covered by the Yardbirds in 1965 and Aerosmith in 1974.
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Ralph Chilton

November 25, 1931 – Ralph Chilton figures that ice is always nice but tiny cubes would be nicest of all. A Dayton resident, he receives patent for a contraption that removes ice cubes from freezer trays.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE November 24, 1864 – William Copelan is born in Cincinnati. Copelan would become a police chief of Cincinnati and be the last chief to serve who started his career by patrolling on horseback. November 24, 2004 – The 14.04-pound 30 1/8 inch long saugeye caught by Roger Sizemore of Orient in Antrim Lake is a state record.

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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE November 23, 1999 – Brunswick’s Tom Haberman takes a chilly fishing trip on Lake Erie and comes home with a 16.19 pound, 33-inch-long Walleye for a state record. November 23, 1968 – Ohio State University blows out Michigan 50-14. Coach Woody Hayes goes for a two-point conversion after a late-game TD. When asked why Hayes replies: “Because I couldn’t go for three.”
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The Inscription Rock State Memorial

The Inscription Rock State Memorial on Kelleys Island has hundreds of etchings from pre-historic Native Americans. It can be a foreboding place in November and that offers a glimpse of the hardship they encountered.
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Joe Walsh

November 20, 1947 – Joe Walsh is born in Oklahoma but moves to Columbus. After stints in New Jersey and New York City, Walsh heads to Kent State University to create power rock trio The James Gang. His brilliant guitarwork leads to a gig with the Eagles. Walsh performed the national anthem at game four of the World Series of 1995 and Rocky Mountain Way follows every Colorado Rockies win. His favorite guitar? A 1959 Gibson Les Paul.
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World’s Largest Wooden Horse and Buggy

The World’s Largest Wooden Horse and Buggy – probably the world’s only large wooden horse and buggy – seems to roll through the Ohio farmland outside Mesopotania at 8719 State Route 534 northwest of Warren.
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Fascinating Ohio

When Nome, Alaska, needed diphtheria serum in 1925, a dogsled team led by Balto braved 70 mph wind and -60 degrees to get it there. But Balto the Wonderdog ended up with a broke owner in Los Angeles. Cleveland schoolkids donated pennies and raised $2,000 to buy Balto. After his death in 1933, Balto was displayed at the Cleveland history museum. A Balto statue is in Central Park in New York City.
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Mary of Guadalupe

It’s not the world’s largest statue of Mary but it’s pretty daggone big. Marvel at 50-foot Mary of Guadalupe in Windsor in extreme northeast Ohio. Get to it on Ireland Road, which runs north-south between US 6 and Hwy 86. The radiant coils of wire on her back add technical appeal. Don’t visit during a lightning storm.
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America’s forgotten presidents

They are America’s forgotten presidents, that is, presidents who toiled under the Articles of Confederation, which predates the Constitution. Find out more about John Hanson, Elias Boudinot, Thomas Miffin, Richard Henry Lee, John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham, Arthur St. Clair, and Cyrus Griffen at the One and Only Presidential Museum, 6585 Howard Rd, Williamsfield.
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Chrissie Hynde

November 15, 1994 – Akronite Chrissie Hynde sings Luck be a Lady with Frank Sinatra on his Duet II album produced by Phil Ramone. A girl from Ohio with great pipes and big dreams achieves yet another: harmonizing for music lovers forever with the greatest crooner of all time.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE November 14, 1895 – Frank “The Fence” Lausche, born in Cleveland, becomes a minor league baseball player but gives it up for law school and politics. He becomes the only five-term governor in Ohio history. November 14, 1856 - Mark Twain, 19, writes a letter to his mother in Hannibal that he is living in Cincinnati, has a job as a printer and that things are fine.
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John Hunt Morgan

November 13, 1863 – John Hunt Morgan and some followers tunnel out of a jail cell in the Ohio Penitentiary to an airshaft. They return to their cells, wait a week, fashion a rope from prison uniforms and reach the prison yard. Morgan uses $1,000 smuggled in a Bible from his sister to buy a train ticket to Cincinnati, which leads to an escape to Kentucky.
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Alliance

Alliance is the only town in America with a Main Street that is a dead end on both ends.
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The Twist

November 11, 1958: Celebrating a renewed contract with powerhouse R&B label King Records, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters go into King’s Cincinnati studio and record an upbeat tune called The Twist. Though Ballard’s original version eventually becomes a modest hit, it is left to Chubby Checker to cover it and create the greatest dance tune of all time.
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Glen Buxton

November 10, 1947 – Glen Buxton (dies Oct. 19, 1997) is born in Akron but moves to Arizona where he creates a band called the Earwigs. Eventually landing with Alice Cooper’s band, Buxton is credited as lead guitarist for Cooper and co-writes School’s Out, I’m Eighteen and Elected. Rolling Stone named him one of the top 100 guitarists of all time. He wrote Eighteen in a backroom of the Ludlow Garage in Cincinnati.
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Great Lakes Hurricane

November 9, 1913 – Called the Great Lakes Hurricane, a storm blows in from the north with unsurpassed power. Some 235 crewmen lose their lives as 12 commercial ships go down. Winds hit 79 mph in Cleveland.
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Rick Steiner

November 8, 1946 - Rick Steiner is born in North Avondale in Cincinnati. Steiner sells T-shirts on the carnival circuit, becomes a world champion poker player and then, with a lifelong pal, pluck and luck, produces an amazing string of Broadway hits: Big River, Into the Woods, A Secret Garden, The Producers, Chicago, The Wedding Singer, Smokey Joe’s Café, Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray and Jersey Boys.
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Dean Jagger

November 7, 1903 - Dean Jagger, star of “Twelve O’Clock High” who won both the Academy Award and an Emmy for his work, is born near Columbus Grove in Putnam County.

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Gorden Brisker

November 6, 1937 – The late Gorden Brisker is born in Cincinnati, attends the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, where he becomes one of the top tenor saxophonists in the nation and plays extensively with Bill Berry and Woody Herman.
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Leonard Franklin Slye

Nov. 5, 1911 – Leonard Franklin Slye is born in Cincinnati and grows up in a house demolished to make way for Riverfront Stadium and now Great American Ball Park. His family soon moved to Portsmouth and eventually wound up in California during the Great Depression. After four failed years as a singer, Rogers finally gets a hit: Tumbling Tumbleweeds and he becomes the justice-seeking singing cowboy Roy Rogers.
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John Mahon

November 4, 1997 – As Elton John’s Candle in the Wind tribute to Lady Di rolls through the charts, a new drummer joins the band – John Mahon from Canton.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE November 3, 1865 – The nation’s 29th president, Warren G. Harding, is born in Marion. Harding's good looks led GOP bosses to believe he would appeal to women voters, who were voting for the first time in 1920. November 3, 1926 - Raised in poverty and a self-taught child sharp shooter to feed her siblings, Annie Oakley finds fortune and fame thanks to Buffalo Bill. She dies on this day and is buried in Greenville.
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Bobby Neuwirth

November 2 - Akronite Bobby Neuwirth now of Greenwich Village inspires Bob Dylan in 1961 with his banjo picking: “Like Kerouac immortalized Neal Cassady, somebody should have immortalized Neuwirth…You had to brace yourself when you talked to him.” Neuwirth tells Dylan he's headed home to put storm windows up for his parents. Dylan used to do that, too, but not this year. Destiny has other plans for Bob Dylan.
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The Afghan Whigs

Nov. 1, 1986 – The night after Halloween, University of Cincinnati student Greg Dulli and Ohio University student Rick McCollum, who met in a jail cell in Athens on Halloween night, agree to form a rock and roll band: The Afghan Whigs.
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Akron’s Civic Theater

October 31, 2002- Akron’s Civic Theater reopens after a $23 million restoration that returns it to its former glory. The theater is the first in the nation to be built with sound equipment for talking movies. It has a night sky of twinkling stars and moving clouds as well as stunning Moorish and Mediterranean architecture.

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World’s largest milkshake

October 30, 1989 – Smith Dairy in Orrville makes the world’s largest milkshake at 1,575 gallons.
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John Glenn

October 29, 1998 – Buckeye Sen. John Glenn returns to space on the shuttle Discovery from a nine-day mission that included tests on the impact of space on aging.

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Jerome Dillon

October 28, 2005 – After a show at the Hollywood Bowl, drummer Jerome Dillon, a 1987 graduate of Northland High School in Columbus - Dwight Yoakam's school - quits Nine Inch Nails. He formerly played with Howlin’ Maggie on their Honeysuckle Strange album.
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Sarah Jessica Parker

October 27, 1973 – An eight-year-old girl hears destiny whisper as she heads to school in Cincinnati at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Living just above poverty, the girl finds her voice onstage at the downtown school. Sarah Jessica Parker has the pipes and thrives in the footlights, so her family heads to Broadway where she wins the role of Annie. The sun'll come out tomorrow....
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Bootsy Collins

October 26, 1951 – No. 1 funk soul brother Bootsy Collins is born in Cincinnati. His first bass guitar was a restrung electric guitar bought from Sears. James Brown let 17-year-old Bootsy into his band but would not let that converted guitar on stage. Bootsy would transform American funk as a member of the Original J.B.s, Parliament –Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
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The Heisman

October 25, 1869 – John W. Heisman is born in Cleveland. Heisman, who would become the head coach of football teams at Oberlin College in Oberlin, the University of Akron, Clemson, Rice, Georgia Tech and University of Pennsylvania, advocated legalization of the forward pass and was the first coach to have pulling guards lead sweeps. The Heisman trophy, given annually to the top collegiate player, is named for him.
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7,000 Ohioans

October 24 - About 7,000 Ohioans died in the Civil War. Say a prayer for them on this fall day.
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Dwight Yoakam

October 23, 2007 – Country music and film star Dwight Yoakam, who was the son of a gas station owner in Pikeville, Ky., moves to Columbus, where he graduates from Northland High School. He achieves international fame as an actor and with his Bakersfield Honky Tonk style. His Dwight Sings Buck – a Buck Owen tribute album – was released on this date. How big is Yoakam? Johnny Cash said he was his favorite country singer.
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Stiv Bators

October 22, 1949 – Steven John Bators is born in Youngstown, later changes his name to Stiv Bators and creates bands like the Dead Boys, the Lords of the New Church and The Wanderers. A regular performer at NYC's club CBGB, he died in London in the summer of 1990 when he was struck by a taxi. His ashes were spread over the Paris grave of the Doors’ Jim Morrison. Stiv's power move? Stick his head into the kick drum during a song.
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Peter Frampton

October 21 – Guitar slinger Peter Frampton picked up his mail today at his home in Indian Hill near Cincinnati. Hum a few bars of "I want youuuuu to show me the way....Everyday...."
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Deadly gales

October 20, 1916 – Hurricane-force winds blow up from Alabama and pick up energy off Lake Erie. The deadly gale sinks three ships including the James B. Colgate near Ashtabula, which was fully loaded with coal, and the Merida, bound for Buffalo with a load of iron ore. The storm kills 58 crewmen on those ships and others as it roars across the lake.
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The world’s oldest traffic light

October 19 – The world’s oldest traffic light is in the very strange but appealing Small Town Museum in Ashville at 34 Long St. George Jetson would have loved this light! Call 740-983-9864 for info.
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The Coyne Incident

October 18, 1973 – An Army Reserve helicopter crew of four spots a gray cigar-shaped aircraft with unusual lights and maneuvers while flying at night near Mansfield on a Columbus to Cleveland trip. The UFO approached on a collision course before pulling up to beam a green light at the helicopter. The close encounter is now known as the Coyne Incident and remains one of the most reliable and mysterious sightings of a UFO.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE October 17, 1914: Jerry Siegel is born. An artist and storyteller, he attends Glenville High School in Cleveland, befriends Joel Shuster and together they create the comic book character named Superman. The story of a bullet-proof man is created after Siegel’s father is killed in a store robbery. October 17, 1894 – The Ohio National Guard kills five would-be lynchers in Washington Courthouse while rescuing a black man.
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Frank Lloyd Wright

October 15, 2005: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s only Prairie Style home in Ohio, Springfield’s Westcott House, 1340 E High St., opens to the public after a five-year restoration. The house was built for a prominent family in 1908, but had fallen on hard times – becoming a multi-unit apartment building – before the renovation. Call 937-327-9291 for tour information. Reservations are suggested.
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Ohio road trip

Nothing says autumn like an Ohio road trip, perhaps to the National Museum of Cambridge Glass at 136 South Ninth Street from April through October. Check out the incredible swans and tableware.
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The Judge

October 13, 1813 – Calvin L. Noble, later called “The Judge,” is born in Trumbull County. He founded a Democratic newspaper in Cleveland and because the type was too wide for his display headline title, he left out a letter and changed forever the spelling of “Cleaveland” to “Cleveland.” Cleaveland Rocks!
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John Vandevanter

October 12, 1802 – Maybe it was on this fall day, maybe on another, but in 1804 Belmont County’s John Vandevanter is paid $3 for a panther hide.
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Ring-necked pheasants

October 11, 1919 - Autumn was in full blaze across the Ohio landscape when the state begins its annual release of 25,000 ring-necked pheasants. Originally imported from China, about five million birds would be released in the program. By 1976, more than 98 percent of that population would be gone.
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Akron-Canton Aeros

October 10, 1996 – Michael Agganis moves the Akron-Canton Indians to Akron’s $32 million ballpark. He wants them named the Akron Blast, to honor the city’s contribution to the space industry - the most prominent was of astronaut Judy Resnick, who died in the Challenger shuttle. Even worse? Agganis wants a cat mascot Kaboom. Finally, a citywide contest offers the Aeros and a mascot named Orbit.
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Hang on Sloopy

October 9, 1965 – With Hang on Sloopy at No. 1 on the charts, the Ohio State University band plays the song for the first but not the last time thanks to band member John Tatgenhorst. He had to convince his band director to work it in. The crowd goes wild and the song has been played during games ever since with fans singing along loudly and making letters with their arms during a bridge in the chorus: O - H - I - O.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE October 8, 1950 – Robert “Kool” Bell is born in Youngstown. The bassist and singer would lead the funk, soul, disco and R&B group Kool and the Gang to global fame. October 8, 1965 - William Henry Hope, stone mason and father of Bob Hope, has a bridge named in his honor: the Carnegie Avenue bridge linking downtown Cleveland to the West Side. The art deco bridge joins the National Register of Historic Places.
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Turbojet Green Monster

October 7, 1964 – Akronite and Springfield Township resident Art Arfons, the “junkyard genius of the jetset” drives his turbojet Green Monster to a world land-speed record of 434.356 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The Monster was, essentially, a frame, four tires, a chassis, a seat and a jet engine.
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Contemporary Arts Center

October 6, 1990 - In a resounding blow to a conservative sheriff trying to enforce his standards on a community, a Cincinnati jury acquitted the Contemporary Arts Center art museum and its director, Dennis Barrie, of obscenity charges in connection with an exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe photos. The courtroom erupted in shouts and cheers when the verdict was announced.
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Maya Lin

October 5, 1959 – Maya Lin, born in Athens, wins a commission to create a Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is unveiled November 13, 1982 and bears the names of fallen soldiers from the conflict. The memorial becomes an instant Mecca for Americans who fought in the conflict.
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R.W. Apple, Jr.

October 4, 2006 – Hudson native, world traveler and New York Times journalist R.W. Apple, Jr., 71, dies from complications of thoracic cancer. He was a lifelong newshound and gourmand.
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Chris Campbell's Northern Pike

October 3, 1988 – Chris Campbell of Dayton fishes Lyre Lake and lands a freshwater shark: a 22.38 pound, 43-inch long Northern Pike. It's a state record.
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Elizabeth Degenhart Glass Art Day

October 2, 1975 – Ohio declares Elizabeth Degenhart Glass Art Day to honor the 4,000 glass paperweights at the Degenhart Paperweight Museum - behind a gas station in Cambridge at 65323 Highland Hills Rd. Check out the gear-shift-knob paperweight turned down by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's assistant secretary in 1933, and don’t miss three glass gravesite markers – a trend that never took off but remains a good idea.
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World Series fix

October 1, 1919 – Players on the Chicago White Sox fix the World Series with the Cincinnati Reds by conspiring to lose. George M. Cohan, the Broadway showman, was in the stands at Redland Field today. He lost a bundle on the White Sox, too.
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Nobody But Me

September 30, 1968 – The Human Beinz, a garage band from Youngstown, find that their version of Nobody But Me, a cover of a 1963 Isley Brothers song, rips into the Billboard Top 10. The word “No” is spoken over 100 times and “Nobody” uttered 46 times.
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Jack Nicklaus

September 29, 1960 - Jack Nicklaus, 20, Upper Arlington, shoots 67 on the way to a 269 at the World Amateur Team Championship at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia. His 66-67-68-68 remains a record as the U.S. team wins by 42 strokes. A junior in college and two months newlywed, Nicklaus remembered it as "one of the finest straight 72 holes I’ve played.” He won individual honors by 13 strokes.
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Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop

Some customers of The Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop in Greenville got a notion a few years back, or maybe longer, to dump their chewing gum before they dug into the restaurant’s tasty burgers. Hmmm, this wall looks like a good place to stick it. Today, two entire brick walls, the side and the front, at the shop are covered with gum globs. Ain’t that America?
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Benjamin Orzechowski

September 27, 2000 – Benjamin Orzechowski, a Lakewood and Parma resident as well as Valley Forge High School dropout, has his last performance in Anchorage, Alaska. Known as Ben Orr and a bassist, he was a founding member of The Cars after meeting Ric Ocasek in Columbus in the early 1970s. Orzechowski would die from pancreatic cancer six days after this show.
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Toledo Museum of Art

September 26, 1982: The Toledo Museum of Art opens perhaps its most important exhibition ever, “El Greco of Toledo,” featuring 60 rarely traveled paintings – most from Spanish museums – of the great painter who settled in and became associated with Toledo, Spain. Toledo was one of just three American museums to display it.

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The Isley Brothers

Sept. 25, 1971 - The Isley Brothers, a soul act from the Cincinnati neighborhoods of South Cumminsville and Lincoln Heights with Top 40 hits since 1959’s “Shout,” release a version of Neil Young’s “Ohio” – about the 1970 Kent State massacre – on their “Givin’ It Back” album. The powerful 9:12 minute version is coupled with Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun.”
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Record 3.06 pound pink salmon

September 24, 2004 - Andy Janoski of Chagrin Falls hooks a state record 3.06 pound pink salmon that is 20 1/8 inches long from Conneaut Creek near Lake Erie.
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Layzie Bone

September 23, 1975 – Steven Howse is born, grows up in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland, changes his name to Layzie Bone and becomes a founding member of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Their ghetto-hip-hop goes all the way to Los Angeles to a Grammy award.

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Campbell Hill

Campbell Hill at 1,550 feet above sea level in tiny Bellefontaine is the highest spot between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Find the hill at The Hi Point Career Center east of Bellfontaine on Ohio 540.
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West Side Market

The best selection of fresh food anywhere in the state is at the West Side Market, 1995 W. 25th St., in Cleveland, where Old-World vendors sell foods that appeal to more than two dozen nationalities.
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Wild Cherry

September 20, 1976 - Advice given to Mingo Junction native Bob Parissi at a disco club in Pittsburgh – “Play that funky music, white boy” – becomes the hook for a song recorded in Cleveland by Parissi’s group, Wild Cherry. The song hits No. 1 on this autumn day. Parissi had written the lyrics on the back of a waitress’s order pad only months before, and now he has a song that will be played forever at suburban parties of Baby Boomers.
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Carew Tower

Take a trip to the top of the Carew Tower in Cincinnati for stunning views of Kentucky and the Ohio River basin.
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Peg Entwhistle

September 18, 1932 – Actress Peg Entwhistle, 24, ends it all by leaping from the H of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. Her ashes are near the grave of her father in Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, a suburb of Cincinnati. A letter from the Beverly Hills Playhouse mailed the day before she jumped and received the day after, offered her a lead role in a stage production. That character committed suicide.
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Terminal Tower

The view from the Terminal Tower in Cleveland is incredible. At 52 stories and with a clear day, expect to see more than 30 miles.
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Slovenian Sausage Festival

This date is a moving target in September but kielbasa lovers should not miss the Slovenian Sausage Festival, a benefit event for the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum. Favorite polka bands and sausage shops fill SNPJ Farm in Kirtland with eight hours of non-stop music and munching.
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VegiTerranean

September 15, 2007 – Founder of the Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and Adam Seymour, lead guitarist for the group, perform three songs to celebrate the opening of her Akron vegan restaurant VegiTerranean.
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Middlefield Cheese House

Spend a day among the Amish of northern Ohio and sample the Swiss Cheese manufactured at Middlefield Cheese House (800-32-SWISS) where a 20-minute movie will fill you in on why the Amish manufacture Swiss cheese in such quantities.
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Tim “Ripper” Owens

September 13, 1967 – Tim “Ripper” Owens is born in Akron. Owens is a heavy metal blaster who would draw on the angst of his Akron roots to become lead singer for Judas Priest.
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Bizzy Bone

September 12, 1976 – Bryon Anthony McCane II is born in Columbus. His high-pitched voice sets the flava of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. McCane assumes the name Bizzy Bone.
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Pete Rose

DAILY DOUBLE September 11, 1985 – Cincinnati native son Pete Rose comes to bat in Riverfront Stadium and gets his 4,193th hit to move past Ty Cobb on baseball’s all-time hit list. September 11 – Doug Cherry’s ashes are interned at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in his home town of Terrace Park, where he was a champion prep swimmer. Cherry died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
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Steamship Gen. Anthony Wayne

September 10, 2006 – Auto parts supplier Tom Kowalczk of Lakeside spends a 12-hour day searching for the side-wheel steamship Gen. Anthony Wayne, which went down April 27, 1850, north of Vermilion. He sees the wheelhouse on his last pass of the day. The ship, according to legend, was carrying millions of dollars in gold coins but Kowalszk doesn’t believe the story, and anyhow, wrecks in Lake Erie are owned by the State of Ohio.
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Billy “Thunder” Mason

September 8, 2004 - Already at the top of the charts, Tim McGraw’s Live Like You Were Dying features the drumming of Fairborne native Billy “Thunder” Mason.
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Gus J. Gronowski

August 15, 1992 – Gus J. Gronowski of Parma, a fisherman’s name if there ever was one, lands a 37.65-pound channel catfish that is 41 ½ inches long and once haunted the mud of LaDue Reservoir.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE August 4, 1962 – Speedballer Roger Clemens, who probably still hasn't owned up to steroid use, is born in Dayton. August 4, 1989 – Walter Shumaker of Ashtabula is fishing in Lake Erie when he lands a 29.5 pound, 42 7/8 inch Chinook Salmon. Boy is he surprised. It’s a state record.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE July 28, 1982: Comedian Joe E. Brown dies. Born in Holgate, Brown’s best role came in Some Like It Hot, when he responds “Well, nobody’s perfect” when the woman of his dreams, played by Jack Lemmon, reveals herself a man in disguise. July 28, 1979 – Richard Affolter, New Philadelphia, lands a monster at Clendening Lake: a 76.5 pound Flathead Catfish. At 59 5/8 inches long, it's the biggest fish ever caught in Ohio.

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Record temperature of 131

July 21, 1934 – State record temperature of 131 set near Gallipolis, and in 2001, Fremont’s James S. Williams decides to go fishing on the Sandusky River, which runs right through town. He catches a 23.5 pound Drum, also known as a Sheepshead, that is 37 1/8 inches long and brings Williams a state record.
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Sizemore's white bass

July 1, 1983 – Ira Sizemore of Cincinnati catches a 4-pound 21-inch white bass from a Southwest Ohio gravel pit. It’s a whopper and a state record.
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Joseph Smith, Jr.

June 27, 1844 - Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Mormon Church, also known as The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, leaves his temple at Kirtland, Ohio, for Carthage, Ill., where an angry and fearful mob would gather and kill him.
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George Armstrong Custer

June 25, 1876 – Buckeye native George Armstrong Custer of New Rumley would become a brigadier general at the age of 23. He and his two rowdy brothers, Thomas and Boston, die on this day at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
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Tremper Mound

June 24, 1915 - More than 140 animal effigy pipes of turtles, beavers, bobcats, owls and hawks are excavated and shipped to the British Museum from the Tremper Mound, a Hopewell site at Ohio 73 and Ohio 104 north of Portsmouth.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE June 23, 1882 – A "Mystery Wave" swamps Cleveland. Logs were carried hundreds of feet inland and the forge at Cleveland Rolling Mill went out. June 23, 1976 – William DeHart Hubbard finishes his remarkable run through life. Cincinnatian Hubbard was the first African-American Olympic gold medal winner. The Walnut Hills High School grad won the long jump at the 1924 Paris Olympics, despite competing with an injured heel.
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Chef Boy Ar Dee

June 21, 1985 - Ettore Boiardi, dies in Parma at the age of 87. He opened his first restaurant, Il Giardino d'Italia, in Cleveland in 1926. The spaghetti sauce was so good, he sold it carryout to customers in old milk bottles. Before long, the national brand Chef Boy Ar Dee was in millions of households nationwide. June 21, 1850 – Daniel Carter Beard, who would become the founder of the Boy Scouts of America, is born in Cincinnati.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE June 16, 1778 – Daniel Boone, encamped for several months about three miles north of Xenia, sees a war party forming of 450 Shawnee, escapes and travels 160 miles south in five days to lead the defense of Boonesborough, Ky., a town he founded. June 16, 1993 – Randy Van Dam of Kalamazoo, Mich., catches a 9.5-pound, 23.5 inch smallmouth bass from Lake Erie.
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Flash flood

June 14, 1990 – A flash flood on Wegee Creek and Pipe Creek in Belmont County kills 26 people as rain brings 4 inches an hour and creates a terrible six-foot wall of water that roared down those rural Ohio streams.
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Italian American Summer Festival

Enjoy spicy sausage and fresh-grilled peppers, cavatelli, eggplant rolatini and big platters of pasta at the annual Italian American Summer Festival on the first weekend in June at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE
June 6, 1890: Bandleader Ted Lewis (Theodore Leopold Friedman) was born in Circleville. During the Roaring Twenties and the Depression, he became one of America’s top entertainers with his catchphrase “Is everybody happy?” June 6, 2004 – Not even a quarter of a pound, the long ear sunfish caught by Brian Zimmerman of Hartville in Big Darby Creek weighs .2 pounds and is just 6 ½ inches long -big enough to be a state record.
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William Boyd

June 5, 1895 – William Boyd is born in Hendrysburg, about 26 miles east of Cambridge. He became a silent film actor and would become a multi-millionaire after he purchased rights to his character, Hopalong Cassidy, then put the dozens of films on TV. A Hopalong Cassidy Museum in Cambridge is a tribute to Boyd and displays Hopalong gear and collectibles. Where is your old Hopalong cereal bowl?
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William Boyd

June 5, 1895 – William Boyd is born in Hendrysburg, about 26 miles east of Cambridge. He became a silent film actor and would become a multi-millionaire after he purchased rights to his character, Hopalong Cassidy, then put the dozens of films on TV. A Hopalong Cassidy Museum in Cambridge is a tribute to Boyd and displays Hopalong gear and collectibles. Where is your old Hopalong cereal bowl?
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10-cent beer

June 4, 1974: The Cleveland Indians forfeit a game to the Texas Rangers at cavernous Municipal Stadium because the crowd was uncontrollably rowdy due to the Indians’ 10-cent beer promotion to spur ticket sales.
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Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks and Serpent Mound

Ohio’s monumental Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks and Serpent Mound are on U.S. Department of Interior’s 14 U.S. cultural and natural areas that should be considered of World Heritage Status. The site is on Ohio 73 near Peebles (800-752-2757)
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Carl Burton Stokes

June 2, 1927: Cleveland Mayor Carl Burton Stokes, the first African American elected mayor of a major U.S. city, is born. He grew up in public housing at Outhwaite Homes, was a high school drop-out but returned to school after a stint in the Army. Following his time as mayor, a term marked by corruption, Stokes became the first black anchorman in New York City as an anchor at WNBC-TV in 1972. He died April 3, 1996.
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Go Bobcats!

June 1, 1808 - First U.S. land-grant university founded at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. About 150 years later the school gets a reputation as a party school because, well, because students tend to have a great, good time at OU. Go Bobcats!
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE May 31, 2003: Grand opening of the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati designed Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid. May 31, 2004 – Depressed over the death of his wife, Alice, Akron native Robert Quine, 52, commits suicide. A former tax lawyer who played guitar, Quine collaborated with greats like Lou Reed and Brian Eno. He is No. 80 on Rolling Stone’s top 100 guitarists of all time.

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Sojurner Truth

May 29, 1851 - Former slave Sojurner Truth, mother of 13 children - most were taken from her and sold to other slaveowners - delivers a feminist speech on human rights in Akron to the Ohio Woman's Rights Convention. “Ain’t I a woman?” she asks.
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Ohio Woman's Rights Convention

May 28, 1851 - The Ohio Woman's Rights Convention meets in Akron and notes the following statistics: the average seamstress earns between $.75 and $1.50 per week for 15-18 hours of daily labor. Female school teachers earn $21.49 per year, about half that of male counterparts.
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Edson B. Olds

May 27, 1862 – Members of the Ohio delegation to Congress petition President Abraham Lincoln to order the release of Ohioans seized and imprisoned without charges, who are under the jurisdiction of the War Department. Arrested was Edson B. Olds, a physician, merchant and politician who had served in Congress as a Democrat (1849-55). During his imprisonment Olds was elected to the state legislature and took his seat upon his release.
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Roy Landsberger

May 26, 1976 – Roy Landsberger of Kensington catches a farm pond, state record largemouth bass that is 13.13 pounds and 25 1/16 inches long. Clearly, May is the month to go fishing in Ohio.
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Johnson’s Island

May 25, 1862: First Lieutenant R.M. Ray is the first Confederate soldier to die in the Union prison camp on Johnson’s Island in Sandusky Bay. Ray, captured in February 1862 during the battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee, is followed in death by 266 others before the camp closes in 1865.
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TRIPLE PLAY

TRIPLE PLAY May 24, 1967 – Judson Holton of Chillicothe catches a 50-pound, 40-inch carp from Paint Creek Lake for a state record. In 1981, Ronald Stone of Wooster catches a state-record 4.5 pound 18 1/8 inch black crappie. Maybe this is a good day to go fishing in Ohio. May 24, 1935 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt symbolically throws the switch in Washington D.C. for the first night game in baseball at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.
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Seip Mound

Seip Mound, about two miles east of Bainbridge on U.S. 50 in Ross County is a classic Hopewell Indian mound.
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Barry Bishop

May 22, 1963: Cincinnati native and photographer Barry Bishop reaches the summit of Mount Everest as part of the first American team to do so, sponsored by the National Geographic Society. He later addresses a celebratory assembly at his old high school, Walnut Hills, whose motto is Sursum ad Summum – Latin for Rise to the Highest.
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Ronald Isley

May 21, 1941 – Ronald Isley is born in Cumminsville in Cincinnati, later moving to Lincoln Heights before leaving for New Jersey and a New York recording career. He would lead the Isley Brothers to international fame and have Billboard top 10 songs in five decades. A tax evasion conviction from 2007 put the now-ailing Isley into a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., through April 2010.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE May 20, 1891 – John William Lambert builds a three-wheeled gas-powered car in Ohio City. The first automobile accident in the United States is here after Lambert's Buckeye Gasoline Buggy hits a tree stump and bounces into a hitching rack. May 20, 2007: The wreck of the S.S. Anthony Wayne is found in Lake Erie eight miles off Vermillion. The ship, which sank on April 28, 1850, is rumored to hold $100,000 in gold coins.
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Not for Waylon

On one of these fine spring mornings in the 1980s, country singing star Waylon Jennings decides to bring a gift to his old buddy Johnny Cash at Cincinnati’s University Hospital. Conceal-carry? Not for Waylon. He just walks into the hospital with a pearl-handled, long-barrel .45 hanging in his hand at his side. He was in full Waylon regalia, too, long black outlaw coat and black cowboy hat. Wotta world...
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Ezzard Charles

May 18, 1954 – Cincinnati's Ezzard Charles trains for a heavyweight title fight with Rocky Marciano to be held in June. Charles, the Cincinnati Cobra, went the distance but lost on points. He was also a double bass player, who played with some of the nation's jazz greats at Birdland in Harlem. He died in 1975 at 53 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's Disease.
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Donald DeFreeze

May 17, 1974: Donald DeFreeze, a Cleveland-born criminal who became radicalized in a California prison and, upon his escape, assumed leadership of the Symbionese Liberation Army that kidnapped Patty Heart, killed himself when trapped in a shoot-out with Los Angeles police. His badly burned remains were returned to Cleveland and buried at Highland Park Cemetery.
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Matt Amedeo

May 16, 2006: Matt Amedeo of Akron latches onto a vicious, 31.64 pound, 47-inch Tiger Muskie while fishing Turkeyfoot Lake south of Tire Town. It’s a state record.
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Hocking Hills Canopy

Take a trip to the Hocking Hills Canopy Tour in Rockbridge about 40 miles southeast of Columbus (740-385-9477) for a two-hour, treetop view of the Buckeye State on a zip line network through the trees.
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Dan Auerback

May 14, 1979 – Guitarist Dan Auerback of Akron is born. His vocal leads bring The Black Keys of Akron international attention. Albums include "Rubber Factory" and "Magic Potion."
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Music Explosion

May 13, 1967: "Little Bit O' Soul," an irresistibly hummable garage-band-y single from Mansfield, Ohio's Music Explosion, enters the Billboard charts. It will eventually reach #2, the only Top 40 release for these one-hit wonders.
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Trent Reznor

May 12, 1986 – Budding thrash musician Trent Reznor joins the Cleveland band Exotic Birds, gets a part-time job sweeping up and doing handyman work at the former Right Track Studio (now Midtown Recording) where he convinces owner Bart Kostner to let him record a few songs he’d written. The songs would later form the basis for Pretty Hate Machine and Reznor’s band Nine Inch Nails was born.
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Greg Dulli

May 11, 1965 – Greg Dulli is born in Hamilton, the musical home waters of Roger Troutman LeRoy Sugarfoot Bonner and others. Dulli played pick-up games with African-Americans who lived in the nearby Second Ward, where he was exposed to Hamilton funk. Dulli founded the Afghan Whigs, a grunge rock band, and played on the soundtrack for the movie Backbeat, about the early years of the Beatles.
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Amanda Borden

May 10, 1977 – Amanda Borden is born in Cincinnati. She took up gymnastics at the age of 7, would graduate from Finneytown High School and win a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.
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Timothy Cory Hively

May 8, 2005 – Not quite weighing in at a pound, the .99 pound 10 5/8 inch green sunfish caught in a Clermont County farm pond near Cincinnati puts Timothy Cory Hively of Bethel into the Ohio fish record books. Maybe it's a good idea to go fishing in Ohio in the first week of May!
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE May 9, 1896 - Akronite Ferdinand Schumacher dies. In his life, he figured out how to precook then dry oat flakes for cereal. He created the Quaker Oats Co. and became an American Oatmeal King. His silos, which once held 1.5 million bushels of grain, are now hotel rooms and dorms. May 9, 1987 – Christopher Boling of Montpelier catches an 11.69-pound 33.25-inch state record Bowfin fish from Nettle Lake.
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Teresa Brewer

May 7, 1931 – Teresa Brewer of Toledo is born. One of the most popular singers of the 1950s with songs like Bo Weevil, Bell Bottom Blues and Skinnie Minnie, she will get her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Bernard Alexander

May 6, 1982 – Bernard Alexander, born in Dayton, plays the guitar lead on The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Known on stage as Little Axe, this 1982 release goes down in history as one of the most transforming pieces of music in the nation’s history: "Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge…” Hip Hop is born.
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DAILY DOUBLE

May 5, 1970: In a voter backlash for having sent National Guard troops to college campuses, favored Governor James Rhodes is defeated by Robert Taft in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
May 5, 1865 – First train robbery in the United States at North Bend, west of Cincinnati. Some believe it was led by Frank James, who often stayed in expensive Cincinnati hotels and boasted that he was the first train robber in America.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE - Did a renegade CIA agent - one of Nixon's plumbers - start the shooting at Kent State University in 1970? Four are dead in Ohio.
May 4, 2001 – Rosemary Shaver of Logan catches a 31 inch, 17.68-pound striped hybrid bass at Deer Creek Lake for a state record.

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John Nause

May 3, 1988 – John Nause of Fremont hooks a state record white perch at 1.42 pounds that is 14 1/16 inches long. He was fishing Green Creek.

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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE May 2, 1934: WLW, owned by Cincinnati entrepreneur Powel Crosley, begins transmitting at 500,000 watts when President Franklin Roosevelt activates the station via remote control from the White House. It broadcasts to 13 states at that power until 1939, when the FCC and Congress end the experiment. May 2, 1976 – Roger Trainer, Waverly, catches a 5.25-pound, 21-inch spotted bass from Lake White for a state record.
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Jacob Sechler Coxey

May 1, 1894 – Massillon mayor Jacob Sechler Coxey and 20,000 followers pilgrimage from Ohio to Washington D.C. to demand public construction work for unemployed Americans. The quest ends when Coxey is arrested for stepping on the White House lawn.
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Puffed Rice

April 30, 1904 - Puffed Rice, developed by a worker at Akron's Quaker Oats, makes its world debut at the World's Fair in St. Louis where it was shot from cannons.
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Donald Mills

April 29, 1915 – Donald Mills is born in Piqua. As a member of the Mills Brothers, he became the first African American performer to have his own radio show. He was awarded a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 1998, a year before his death.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE April 28, 1979: British rock star Ian Hunter’s new album, “You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic,” hits the charts and contains a tune that would become Ohio’s greatest rock anthem – “Cleveland Rocks.” The song becomes the theme of “The Drew Carey Show.” April 28, 1990 – Willis D. Nicholes of Quaker City catches a state record bluegill at 3.28 pounds and 12 ¾ inches from Salt Fork Reservoir.
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Sydney Nathan

April 27, 1904: Sydney Nathan, not yet wearing his trademark bottleneck eyeglasses, is born in Cincinnati. After trying various jobs, including running a record store, he started King Records in 1943. For more than 20 years, the Cincinnati company released R&B, blues, country and bluegrass hits by Hank Williams, Hank Ballard, Little Willie John, Ralph Stanley, Moon Mullican and funk hits from his biggest star, James Brown.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE
April 26, 1900 - Charles Richter born in Hamilton, Ohio, moves to Southern California and develops a scale to measure earthquake strength.
April 26, 1971 – Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr. is born in Columbus. He would move to Nashville and become the bassist, harmony vocalist and songwriter for the immensely popular country music trio Rascal Flatts.
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Kyle Rock

April 25, 1995 – Kyle Rock of Zanesville is fishing in a nearby private pond when he catches a 3.9-pound, 18 1/8 inch white crappie, a state record.
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Frogtown Film Festival

The annual Frogtown Film Festival features budding high school directors in a contest at the Maumee Valley Country Day School. The event is named for Toledo’s reputation by settlers as being a town full of frogs thanks to its proximity to Ohio’s Black Swamp.
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Luigi’s in Akron

Nothing says pizza like Luigi’s in Akron on North Main Street above the gorge. And nothing says strange like the restaurant’s whirring music box: Mechanical Barbie and the Band of Many Kens.
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Jerry Rubin

April 22, 1969: Jerry Rubin, Cincinnati native and co-founder of the radically countercultural, anti-Vietnam group the Yippies, returns to his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, to speak to 2,000 students and faculty members. He championed LSD use and said people in the U.S. “super-rationalize and accept their (disappointing lives) because they have been trained to accept it.”
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National prison reforms

April 21, 1930- A terrible fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary kills 322 inmates as cell doors had to be opened individually, an impossible task in a raging fire. The tragedy leads to national prison reforms, and the old building has supposedly been haunted ever since.
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Lake Trout record

April 20, 2000 – Tom Harbison of Natrona, Pa., heads for a day on the water on Lake Erie and catches a 20.49 pound, 34-inch-long Lake Trout for a state record.
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Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum

Take a springtime jaunt to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in Pickerington. In 2007, Rush drummer Neil Pert was one of the drop-ins.
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Clarence Darrow

April 18, 1857 – Clarence Darrow is born near Kinsman. Though it took seven tries to pass the bar exam, Darrow finds a career in law. A former secretary of state and presidential candidate, Darrow, an authority on the Bible, defends a teacher who taught evolution. He loses the Scopes Monkey Trial to William Jennings Bryan but wins on appeal and shows a nation that Christian beliefs are matters of faith - not science.
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Charles Thomas

April 17, 1984 – Charles Thomas of Lorain catches a state-record yellow perch at 2.75 pounds and 14 ½ inches long while fishing in Lake Erie.
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Wilbur Wright

April 16, 1867 – Wilbur Wright is born in Indiana but moves with his family to Dayton, Ohio, where he figures out that men can fly after all.
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Bear-laden boat

Maybe it was today in 1801 when a bear swims the Ohio river in Monroe County. Two boys, William Henthorn and John Hilmore, row out to halter it with a chain. The bear has other ideas and climbs into the boat, which the boys abandon. Two locals use a raft to pursue the bear-laden boat and end the episode with a rifle shot. For years, whenever the boys took to bragging, friends suggest that maybe it was time to go capture another bear.
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Clarence “Satch” Satchel

April 14, 1940 – Clarence “Satch” Satchel is born in Cleveland. His musical leanings lead to work as a saxophonist with the Ohio Untouchables, which becomes a preeminent funk band of the era under the name The Ohio Players.
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Pete Rose

April 13, 1963 – Scrappy Pete Rose, told his whole life that he was too small to play sports, gets his first hit in the big leagues - a triple for the Reds off the Pirates’ Bob Friend. Too slow? Pete would show 'em. Rose becomes baseball’s all-time hit leader but a pariah for betting on games (and probably throwing a few, while managing, to wipe out debts to a NYC mobster named Bruno, aka Jocko).
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55.13 pound Muskellunge

April 12, 1972 – Joe D. Lykins of Piedmont heads out onto Piedmont Lake and catches a titanic, 55.13 pound Muskellunge that is 50 ¼ inches long and a state record.
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Richie Furay

April 11, 1966 – Buffalo Springfield debuts as an alt-country-folk-pop band at The Troubadour in Hollywood and eventually becomes the house band. Yellow Springs native Richie Furay is lead vocalist and would play and sing on the 60’s anthem For What It’s Worth. He would also become a founding member of Poco. Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
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Johnson’s Island

April 10, 1862: The first prisoners-of-war arrive at Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie near Sandusky, the only Union camp exclusively for internment of Confederates. All told, some 15,000 Confederates would be kept there during the Civil War, the most at any one time reaching 2,800. In 1864, Confederates hatched a plot to capture a gunboat and initiate a mass escape, but it failed.
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Toledo Mud Hens

April 9, 2002: The Toledo Mud Hens minor-league baseball team plays its first game at the new, 10,300-capacity Fifth Third Field in downtown. Because of the team’s quality and long history (playing as the Mud Hens since 1896), and because of the urban setting, it consistently draws over 500,000 fans in a season – a fantastic amount for the minors. Newsweek named Fifth Third Field the best minor-league park
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Tony Packo’s Café

Tony Packo’s Café at 1902 Front Street in Toledo has one of the stranger decor touches in all of restaurant history: a wall with hundreds of hot dog buns signed by fans and visiting celebrities.
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Bobby Bare

April 7, 1935 – Bobby Bare is born in Portsmouth. His Detroit City would win a Grammy Award as Song of the Year in 1963, and in the next four decades he would make great country music with Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Reed and Mel Tillis.
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Lowell Jackson Thomas

April 6, 1892 – Lowell Jackson Thomas, adventurer, writer, journalist, broadcaster and known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia (T.E. Lawrence) a household name, is born in Woodington in Darke County. He wrote 56 books in his time and earned $1.5 million from a stage show based on the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia.
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Judith Arlene Resnik

April 5, 1949 - Judith Arlene Resnik is born in Akron. A graduate of Firestone High School, she became an engineer and NASA astronaut. She died during lift-off of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE April 4, 1841 – President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia. He talked too long at his own inauguration. His original mill/distillery is the waterway on the 15th hole at Aston Oaks Golf Course on the west side of Cincinnati. The office/launch pad for his presidency? Hamilton County Clerk of Courts. April 4, 2009 - Cleveland native Bobby Womack inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Wayne Gleason

April 3, 1977 – Wayne Gleason may have been fishing for giant muskie at Leesville Lake south of Canton but instead he lands a 9.25 pound, 27 ½ inch sucker. The Wellsville resident goes into the record books for catching the largest sucker in Ohio history.
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Tenor Herbert Mills

April 2, 1912 – Tenor Herbert Mills is born in Piqua. He grows up singing at the Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Park Avenue Baptist Church with brothers John Jr., Harry and Donald. The Mills Brothers also hone their routine by performing with a kazoo outside their father’s barber shop. Discovered in Cincinnati by Duke Ellington, they record 2,000 songs, including Get a Job and Paper Doll, and sell 50 million records.
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First paid firefighters

April 1, 1853 – Cincinnati is first city to pay firefighters a regular salary, thereby ending a sometime American firefighter tradition of arson to get wages.
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Jesse Owens

March 31, 1980 – James Cleveland Jesse Owens dies. An Ohio State University grad, the Buckeye Bullet was the grandson of a slave and came to Glenville in Cleveland in 1922 when he was 9. Four golds in the 1936 Berlin Olympics drove Adolph Hitler nuts. After a New York City ticker-tape parade, Jim Crow laws forced Owens to ride the freight elevator to attend his own reception at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
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Bob Hope

March 30, 1908 – Five-year-old Bob Hope, headed to Cleveland with his mother and father, is inspected at Ellis Island after traveling from England to America. His father finds work as a stone mason. Hope would grow up in Cleveland – where people know fun from the day they’re slapped on the butt – to become a comedian for the ages.
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Doris Day

March 29, 1945 - Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff sings Sentimental Journey right onto the billboard charts and into history. Doris, who was born in Evanston in Cincinnati, soon becomes America’s sweetheart as ever-cheerful Doris Day.
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Palm Sunday tornadoes

March 28, 1920 – Holy days mean nothing to the wind. Palm Sunday tornadoes roll through Western Ohio and kill 29 people. One storm’s path of destruction was 1,200 feet wide.
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Kirtland Temple

March 27, 1836 - The first structure of its kind to be built by the Church of the Latter Day Saints, the Kirtland Temple was constructed under the direction of founder Joseph Smith Jr. and dedicated on this day. Smith would later be killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill., but not before he had visions of Adam, Abraham, Jesus, Moses and Elijah at this pulpit.


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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE
March 26, 1970: At the Cincinnati Pop Festival, bare-chested singer Iggy Pop of the Stooges proves himself one of rock's wildest performers by smearing peanut butter on himself while performing "TV Eye" and "1970" as adoring (and possibly hungry) fans flock to him. Detroit's Stooges are only eighth-billed, behind Joe Cocker and Savoy Brown.
March 26, 1931 - Leo Bentley bowls 3 consecutive perfect games in Lorain.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE
March 25, 1932: Gloria Steinem, American feminist and journalist who founded Ms. magazine, is born in Toledo. She graduated from Waite High School, before leaving for Smith College and fame.

March 25, 1961 – At 6.25 pounds, the 26 ¼ inch chain pickerel caught from Long Lake near Akron by Akron resident Ronald P. Kotch is a state record.
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George Sisler

March 24, 1893 – George Sisler, a Hall-of-Fame first baseman who batted .400 twice in his career and once played in every inning of a 154-game season, is born in Nimisila, also known as Manchester and New Franklin. His most-hits-in-a-season record of 257 ends in 2004 when Ichiro Suzuki gets 262 hits. Suzuki, though, got his record in a season that had five more games than Sisler’s 154-game season.
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Halle Berry

March 23, 2002: Halle Berry – a native of the Cleveland suburb of Valley View who got her first name from a now-closed Cleveland department store – wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in “Monster’s Ball.”
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Anita Baker

March 22, 1986 – Toledo native Anita Baker, who would win eight Grammy Awards, releases her incredible hit Rapture… “Caught up in the rapture of love…Nothing else can compare…”
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Alan Freed

March 21, 1952: Legendary disc jockey Alan Freed puts on his first rock 'n' roll concert in Cleveland. The Moondog Coronation Ball, featured The Dominoes, Veretta Dillard, Tiny Grimes & His Rockin' Highlanders with Screamin' Jay Hawkins coming up outa the coffin and Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams. The overflow crowd starts a riot - maybe the first but not the last at a rock show. I put a spell on you. . .
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin

March 20, 1852 – John P. Jewett and Co. publish Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Life Among the Lowly by Cincinnati abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. Within a week of its release, the book would sell 10,000 copies. It had sales of 300,000 in the first year. Within two years, the book would be translated into 60 languages.
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National basketball champs

March 19, 1960 – The Ohio State University wins the NCAA national basketball championship behind the offensive output of Jerry Lucas, a Middletown native, and John Havlicek and the tenacious defense off the bench of Bobby Knight, an Orrville native.
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Richard Biggs

March 18, 1960 - Richard Biggs is born in Columbus. He would become an actor and star in Days of Our Lives as Marcus Hunter and later in the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 as Dr. Stephen Franklin. He died at the age of 44.
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Longaberger

March 17, 1999 – Former bread truck and then grocery store owner Dave Longaberger passes away but not before he creates a basket empire that some years generates more than $700 million in annual revenues for the Longaberger Co. The company revitalizes Longaberger's hometown of Dresden where more than 600,000 tourists visit annually to tour the factory and see his restored homestead.
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Who will stop the rain?

March 16, 1907 – Who will stop the rain? The rain won’t stop falling and rivers throughout Southern Ohio overflow their banks, leading to 32 deaths in towns from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati.
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Alexander Winton

March 15, 1897 – Alexander Winton incorporates the Winton Motor Carriage Co. to produce automobiles built by hand at his Cleveland factory. One hits a top speed of 33 mph around a nearby horse track. To prove the value and durability of his automobile, Winton drives it 800 miles from Cleveland to New York City. A Winton was one of the first cars to be sold commercially.
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Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner

March 14, 1943 – Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner is born in Hamilton. His rip-it-up guitar work and taste for something funky leads to the birth of the Ohio Players.
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Gary Louris

March 13, 2008 – Did you know that Toledo native Gary Louris took seven years of piano lessons, learned the guitar and finally hooked up with other band members in Minneapolis in 1985 to form the Jayhawks. He would write songs for the Dixie Chicks’ Taking the Long Way but his signature song, Somewhere Deep in Ohio, becomes a theme at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Ohio exhibit in Cleveland.
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Wyandot Popcorn Museum

Road Trip: Visit the Wyandot Popcorn Museum on the lower level of at Heritage Hall in Marion, 169 E. Church Street. There's no snack food quite like popcorn!
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Woody Hayes

March 11, 1987 – Iconic OSU gridiron coach Woody Hayes dies at 74. He coached at OSU for 28 seasons: 205 wins and 68 losses, that is, his teams won three times as many games as they lost. He is buried at Union Cemetery in Columbus, off Olentangy Road and just south of W.N. Broad St.
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Record Sauger

March 10, 1981 - At 7.31 pounds and 24 ½ inches long, a state record Sauger is landed by fisherman Bryan Wicks of Maumee while fishing in the Maumee River.
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Shad Gregory Moss

March 9, 1987 – Shad Gregory Moss is born in Reynoldsburg near Columbus. He would release his first album in 1990, Beware of Dog, as a 13-year-old rapper/singer named Lil’ Bow Wow. It sold 2.5 million copies! He is a rare rapper with longevity, who has released an impressive count 'em six studio albums.
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Gnadenhutten Massacre

March 8, 1782 - Gnadenhutten Massacre - Ohio militia kills 90 Indians who had converted to Christianity. The Indians greeted the marauders with open arms and baskets of food. Say a little prayer for them today.
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Bootsy and Catfish Collins

March 7, 1970: Soul star James Brown is annoyed with his band’s performance and fires them all. He asks his manager to get a Cincinnati soul band to substitute. Soon teen bassist Bootsy Collins of Cincinnati, his guitarist brother Catfish and others are Brown’s new band, leading to a glorious funk period that produced “Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine,” “Super Bad” and “Give It Up Or Turnit a Loose.”
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Screamin' Jay Hawkins

March 6, 1991 – The Clash is atop the UK charts with Should I Stay or Should I Go. They decide to go – out on tour. Opening act? Screamin' Jay Hawkins, still climbing out of his coffin. A Cleveland native, Hawkins inspired shock rockers for decades with his '56 hit I Put a Spell on You. Hawkins first show? Alan Freed's 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, the birth of rock and roll & he's still climbing out of the coffin.
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DAILY DOUBLE

DAILY DOUBLE

March 5, 1897 – William McKinley of Canton wakes up to his second day in office as the 25th president of the United States. He would be the last Civil War veteran to occupy the White House - a term and life cut short by assassin Leon Czolgosz, who shot him on a visit to Buffalo, N.Y.

March 5, 1956 – Steve Arrington is born in Dayton. His funk band Slave creates Dancin’ in the Key of Life - a Top Ten R&B single.
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Bob Lewis

March 4, 1946 – Bob Lewis is born. Founding member of the band Devo, Lewis also had played basketball briefly under Coach Bobby Knight, attended Kent State University and eventually wins litigation against Devo for theft of intellectual property thanks to tapes he had of a recording session at a makeshift studio above Guido’s Pizza in Kent.
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The Choir

March 3, 2006 – The Choir reunites at The Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland and performs the '67 hit Baby It’s Cold Outside - by Dan Klawon. Klawon, an electrical contractor in Painesville, sings and plays piano on Sundays at Lakeside Baptist Church. Former band member Jim Bonfanti, formerly of the Raspberries, sells cars in nearby Mentor. Eric Carmen was 18 at the time. Joey Ramone backed by Stiv Bators covered this hit.
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Tommy James

March 2, 1969 – Crimson and Clover by Dayton native Thomas Gregory Jackson, now known as Tommy James, tears up the U.S. song charts to eventually hit number one. Lots of people thought he was singing “Christmas is over….
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Electric lighting

Did you know? Electric lighting of public streets came to the world thanks to Charles F. Brush, who was born in Euclid about 10 miles east of downtown Cleveland.
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