Editor’s note: For our cover story of the 99 greatest moments in 99 years of business, check the Cleveland page under the Get Local link at left.
Here are some local highs and lows.
1901: U.S. President William McKinley, a lawyer from Canton, is shot at Buffalo’s Pan-American Exposition and dies eight days later.
1907: Canton janitor James Murray Sprangler invents a device to help him clean floors and carpets. He takes his invention to boyhood chum William H. Hoover, then president of a business that made leather goods. The Hoover Co. is founded a year later.
1912: The Canton Pressed Brick Co. becomes the Belden Brick Co., as brick manufacturing changes to the extrusion method.
1916: The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Co. starts producing its own steel, setting it apart from all other American bearing makers and setting off a period of high growth.
1920: The American Professional Football Association, predecessor to the National Football League, is founded in Canton.
1943: As the Diebold Safe and Lock Co. begins diversifying into office products, it changes its name to Diebold Inc.
1960s: Timken Research develops improvements in steel production, such as strand casting, electric arc melting and vacuum-degassing facilities. These innovations help the company survive the onslaught of foreign steel in the ’70s and ’80s.
1963: The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens, eventually drawing more than 500,000 people a year for the enshrinement festival alone.
1970: Belden Village Mall is completed.
1970: Diebolds Futura Automatic Banking System provides 24-hour teller services in an armored box now known generically as ATM.
