Thursday, April 26, 2007
Today is Thursday, April 26, the 116th day of 2007. There are 249 days left in the year. On this date in 1607, English colonists go ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Va., on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. (They later settle at Jamestown.)
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, is surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed. In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raid the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, is arrested. In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits the first of a record 61 home runs in a single season. In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania. In 1968, the United States explodes beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called "Boxcar." In 1970, the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company" opens at the Alvin Theatre in New York.
April 26, 1982: Two Alliance men are killed when the experimental airplane they were flying crashes into a wooded area of Smith Township. Dead are Kenneth Luginbuhl, 62, and Kenneth Kilbreath, 68.
U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum is seeking information the government has about a Nevada bomb test more than 20 years ago that allegedly produced radioactive rain on Akron.
Dr. Helen K. Billings, founder and educational director of the Montessori Institute of America, will make a series of public appearances and lectures in the Youngstown area.
April 26, 1967: Youngstown Firemen Leo Asimakopoulos responds to an early morning fire call that turned out to be his own home on Bonnie Brae Ave. The fire was brought under control within 25 minutes and damage was estimated at 5,000. Asimakopoulos' wife was working a night shift as a nurse and no one was home, allowing the fire that started in a rec room to smolder for hours.
John Wendle, president of the Youngstown Federation of Teachers, endorses the 7.5-mill school levy, saying the teachers union is satisfied with the salary proposals that would be put into effect if the levy passes.
Atty. Joseph Bryan, a referee in Mahoning County Juvenile Court, denies that he ordered sterilization as a condition of probation for a Youngstown woman charged with child abuse. "Sterilization poses serious religious, moral, constitutional and legal issues and is repugnant to me on all those grounds," Bryan says.
April 26, 1957: Pressure is mounting, led by the Youngstown Fraternal Order of Police, for legislation that would carry long jail terms for convicted gamblers.
A 15 percent pay raise being demanded by Youngstown policemen and firemen would cost the city 400,000 a year for those two departments and 900,000 for all city workers, says Mayor Frank X. Kryzan.
Two former Youngstown policemen convicted in 1956 of having immoral relations with a 15-year-old girl leave Youngstown for the Ohio Penitentiary to begin serving 1-to-20-year sentences.
April 26, 1932: John Doerfler, 28, of Willard is acquitted by a Mahoning County jury of murder in the death of Smith Crawford, a Penn Avenue grain dealer. Jury Foreman John B. Keeler of Lake Milton tells Doerfler to "cut out the liquor business, be a man and go home to your wife."
John T. Harrington, Youngstown capitalist who died on a trip around the world, leaves an estate of 1.9 million.
Youngstown's Electric Refrigeration and Electric Range show gets off to a flying start with more than 2,500 people visiting the exhibition rooms at the Burt Building, 325 W. Federal St..