Monday, February 21, 2005
Today is Monday, Feb. 21, the 52nd day of 2005. There are 313 days left in the year. On this date in 1965, former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, 39, is shot to death in New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims.
In 1916, the World War I Battle of Verdun begins in France. In 1925, The New Yorker magazine makes its debut. In 1947, Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrates his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds. In 1972, President Nixon begins his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrive in Shanghai. In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert, killing more than 100 people. In 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman are sentenced to 21/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up. In 1986, Larry Wu-tai Chin, the first American found guilty of spying for China, kills himself in his Virginia jail cell. In 1988, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confesses to his congregation in Baton Rouge, La., that he is guilty of an unspecified sin, and says he is leaving the pulpit temporarily. (Reports link Swaggart to an admitted prostitute, Debra Murphree.)
February 21, 1980: Youngstown Steel Door Co.'s big railroad car part plant on Henricks Road remains closed by what is described as a wildcat strike by about 1,200 workers. The strike was sparked by a five-day suspension given a workman who failed to obey a work assignment.
Cash contributions from around the country provided the bail to release the last five of the May Day 10 who were being held in Youngstown City Jail charged with trespassing and obstructing official business while passing out communist literature at the employment office two weeks ago.
Trumbull County commissioners announce two new CETA federal grants that will be used to implement computer training programs in all county secondary schools.
February 21, 1965: The Metropolitan Opera Co. of New York will celebrate its 40th season of sending grand opera to Cleveland and once again tickets will be made available in Youngstown by the Monday Musical Club.
The Youngstown Junior Chamber of Commerce and Mahoning Valley Chevrolet dealers announce that they will sponsor the 28th annual Soap Box Derby in Youngstown this summer.
February 21, 1955: The Ohio Highway Department promises Mahoning County commissioners to investigate holes that are developing in new pavement on Route 7 south of Youngstown.
"Heart Sunday" in the Youngstown area nets more than $25,000, an increase by a third over the $18,695 collected in the door-to-door canvass in 1954.
The Youngstown narcotics squad, led by Detective Sam Shiavi, arrests two Youngstown women and three Warren men in a raid on a suspected dope and prostitution den on the West Side.
February 21, 1930: Trumbull County Coroner J.C. Henshaw can find no record of the murder of Cyril Parks near Warren. James Baker has told Detroit police he killed Parks, his stepfather, on a farm near Warren seven years ago.
Youngstown Police Chief Paul E. Lyden notifies Police Officer Stephen Lubenovic and Cadet Officer Charles Grisdale that they are suspended from the force until an investigation is completed into the death of prisoner Silas Crummey.
Mrs. Eva Dugan, the first woman legally executed in Arizona, goes to her death on the gallows calmly and smiling. She was executed for the 1927 slaying of a Tucson rancher. She is the 23rd woman to be executed in the United States.