They liked Ike: Former prez spoke in Columbus 60 years ago

This week in 1964, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower rallied for GOP candidates here and called criticism against his party nothing but "tommyrot."

Flashback: Columbus was known as "the seat of Ohio Republicanism" back then and Eisenhower received a warm reception at the Memorial Auditorium (located at the current site of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum).

• Around 15,000 people gathered for the speech, many of them downtown workers on their lunch breaks.

The intrigue: Eisenhower flew in from his home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was on daylight savings time.

• Ohio didn't begin observing daylight savings time until 1970, though.
• It seems nobody told Eisenhower, who accidentally showed up an hour early.

State of play: The Buckeye State voted for Eisenhower twice in the 1950s and supported his vice president, Richard Nixon, in the 1960 race.

Yes, but: Weeks after Eisenhower's speech, voters overwhelmingly supported Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater.

• Johnson received a higher percentage of Ohio's vote than any Democratic candidate in state history.