Today is Wednesday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2008. There are 357 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2008. There are 357 days left in the year. On this date in 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, is born in Yorba Linda, Calif.

In 1788, Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flies between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J. In 1861, Mississippi secedes from the Union. In 1908, French philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir is born in Paris. In 1945, during World War II, American forces begin landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. In 1958, President Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address to Congress, warns of the threat of Communist imperialism. In 1964, anti-U.S. rioting breaks out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and several U.S. soldiers. In 1968, the Surveyor VII space probe makes a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface. In 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, says a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving is a fake.

January 9, 1983: Commuter Aircraft Corp. is exploring the possibility of marketing its 60-passenger commuter airplane in the Middle East.

Kent State University has received an $8,000 federal grant to assist the Struthers Charter Commission in developing a new form of government for Struthers.

Biopolis Corp. of America wants to use an old blast furnace in Youngstown to demonstrate a method of burning coal in a clean and efficient method that was developed by Louis Gold, a scientist who died in 1982.

January 9, 1968: General Fireproofing Co. shareholders approve a two-for-one split of $5 par value. The split increases the outstanding shares from 2 million to 4 million.

The Ohio Board of Regents asks Gov. James A. Rhodes to add $25 million to the state’s capital improvements budget, including $4 million to build a technical and community college at Youngstown State University.

Sgt. Donald Franklin Webb, 26, of Youngstown dies near DaNang after a bunker he was in is hit by mortar fire. The eight year Marine veteran is Mahoning County’s 46th Vietnam casualty.

January 9, 1958: Youngstown City Council approves a record appropriation for 1958 of $14.5 million, more than $300,000 above what Mayor Frank X. Kryzan requested.

Mayor Frank X. Kryzan names J.R. Moore to the unexpired term of McCullough Williams Jr. on the City Park and Recreation Committee. Williams was elected 3rd Ward councilman,

Rep. Michael Kirwan, who has served the 19th congressional District since 1936, files his petitions for candidacy for another term.

January 9, 1933: Four of five Mahoning County common pleas judges accept voluntary salary cuts of approximately $1,630 each year. The fourth judge was not asked to take a cut because he already makes $2,000 less than the others.

A mother and daughter subdue a 27-year-old West Side man who was discovered in their garage on Edwards Street at 2 a.m. Mrs. Margaret Clapp and her daughter, Ruth, grappled with the man and finally pinned him to the ground until police arrived.

Miss Jane Andrews, 23, of Ottawa Drive, Youngstown, is killed when the car being driven by Alan Corey of Alameda Avenue overturns on a curve in Oak Street Extension. The couple was returning from a dance at a night club at Bernard Airport. She is the second prominent young woman to be killed in an auto accident in three weeks. Miss Betty Bunn died Dec. 18.