Today is Sunday, Jan. 27, the 27th day of 2008. There are 339 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Jan. 27, the 27th day of 2008. There are 339 days left in the year. On this date in 1967, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee die in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.

In 1756, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria. In 1880, Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric incandescent lamp. In 1901, opera composer Giuseppe Verdi dies in Milan, Italy, at age 87. In 1943, some 50 bombers strike Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II. In 1944, the Soviet Union announces the complete end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for more than two years. In 1945, Soviet troops liberate the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland. In 1951, an era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert begins as an Air Force plane drops a 1-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flat. In 1967, more than 60 nations sign a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. In 1973, the Vietnam peace accords are signed in Paris. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan greets the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

January 27, 1983: Michael Patrick Bilon, the little man who played a big role in Hollywood’s largest grossing movie, “E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial,” dies of complications of an infection in St. Elizabeth Hospital. Bilon, a graduate of Ursuline and Youngstown State University, stood 2 feet, 10 inches tall and was one of three people who wore a rubber and fiberglass suit to play the part of the space creature. He was 35.

U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, R-17, says he will introduce legislation revising a gasoline-tax bill to ease the burden on the trucking industry.

Following pretrial hearings on motions to suppress evidence, U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich delays the begin of the trial of Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. until March 23.

January 27, 1968: An operating budget of $1,169,859 is approved at the annual meeting of the Reuben McMillan Free Library at the Youngstown Club.

Two Republican senators criticize the administration, saying the United States blundered by sending the Navy intelligence ship Pueblo into the area off North Korea without air protection or protection by the Pacific fleet. President Johnson is said to be considering military action if North Korea does not release the ship.

William Newell, 16, of 811 Ann St., Niles, leads his three young sisters to safety after they set fire to a mattress in their bedroom while playing with matches.

January 27, 1958: Mahoning County Commissioner Edward Gilronan proposes hiring a private firm to study the efficiency of Mahoning County government, but Commission Chairman Thomas J. Carney says the board should first get a legal opinion from Prosecutor Thomas A. Beil as to whether such a contract would be legal.

A panhandler tried to put the bite on the wrong man, Youngstown Police Chief Paul Cress, who gave him advise — get out of town — rather than money. When Cress saw the man on Federal Street an hour later, he had him arrested.

Gov. C. William O’Neill is ordered to bed for three weeks after suffering what doctors describe as a mild heart attack.

January 27, 1933: Youngstown police say several business men and other citizens of foreign extraction whose method of entering the country is being investigated have been blackmailed by a local gang under the name of the “Protective Association.”

Rep. John G. Cooper of Youngs–town is prepared to offer an amendment to the pending Justice Department supply bill to strike from the measure all funds earmarked for establishing a metal furniture manufacturing plant at the Lewisburg, Pa., federal prison. The prison would produce office furniture for the federal government, competing unfairly with private industry, Cooper says.

The Ohio Works will resume with one blast furnace, the Bessemer and five open hearths, bringing ingot production in Youngstown to 20 percent of capacity.