Listed by the newspaper in chronological order under the headline, “IMPORTANT EVENTS IN DAYTON IN YEAR JUST COMPLETED,” some events may seem offbeat today while others still influence the region.
Here is a look back 100 years ago at some of the news events of 1917 as they were printed in the Dayton Daily News:
Jan. 8 – Hundreds of Dayton people attend the inauguration of James M. Cox as Governor of Ohio at Columbus.
Jan. 16 – Coal dealers feared shortage of coal for domestic consumption.
March 2 – Gigantic thievery plot is uncovered at plant of Recording and Computing Machines Company. Chas. Zimmerman, doing business as the Ohio Barrel Co., was accused of defrauding the company of aluminum trimmings of the value of $18, 207. 45
March 27 – Machine gun company arrives in city to guard bridges.
April 3 – Bishop Milton Wright, father of the aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright, dies.
April 16 – Flour jumps one dollar a barrel in price.
May 6 – The Daytonia hotel building is donated for Red Cross headquarters.
May 17 – Establishment of Wilbur Wright aviation field officially announced.
June 3 – C.B. Kern, Y.M.C.A. boys work director, killed in automobile crash.
June 19 – A dynamite bundle is found on city hall steps and believed to be a plot to blow up police headquarters. The bomb was composed of two one-pound sticks of dynamite wrapped in newspaper with the words “More like this!” written in red pencil on the outside.
July 30 – The temperature hits 93 degrees, establishing a record for the summer.
Sept. 11 – Jacob Benner, a Miamisburg farmer, was placed in jail on $2,500 bail for making statements against the government. The newspaper reported Benner later said from his cell, “I simply talked too much, and, on second thought, I did not mean it anyhow.”
Sept. 16 – News announces that Dayton and Montgomery county has more bridges than Venice, 3117 in all.
Oct. 5 – John Dwyer, Third Street crossing watchman, dies after being struck by automobile.
Oct. 24 – Ohio State Suffrage Association opens its 32nd annual convention in Dayton’s Hotel Miami. More than 150 women from around the state attended.
Nov. 17 – Henry Ford inspects Wilbur Wright Field.
Dec. 3 – All bids for construction of flood conservancy plans are rejected. Col. E.A. Deeds would announce Dec. 10 that the conservancy bond issue had been underwritten.
Dec. 31 – Ten Dayton ice manufacturing plants close at the request of the Federal Food Administration to conserve coal and ammonia supplies.
About the Author