Today is Monday, July 28, the 210th day of 2008. There are 156 days left in the year. On this date


Today is Monday, July 28, the 210th day of 2008. There are 156 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, a U.S. Army bomber crashes into the 79th floor of New York’s Empire State Building, killing 14 people.

In 1540, King Henry VIII’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, is executed, the same day Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process of law, is certified in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward. In 1914, World War I begins as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. In 1932, federal troops forcibly disperse the so-called “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington to demand money they weren’t scheduled to receive until 1945. In 1945, the U.S. Senate ratifies the United Nations Charter by a vote of 89-2. In 1965, President Johnson announces he is increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 “almost immediately.” In 1977, Roy Wilkins turns over leadership of the NAACP to Benjamin L. Hooks.

July 28, 1983: Robert L. Loughhead resigns as president of Copperweld Steel Co. to take over as president of the proposed employee-owned Weirton Steel Co.

The General Services Administration tells U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams that it will ask Congress to rescind a $10 million appropriation to build a federal building in downtown Youngstown because the government can lease the needed office space at a much lower cost.

United Telephone Co. threatens Trumbull County with a partial shut off of telephone service unless the county pays down $60,000 in overdue phone bills.

July 28, 1968: Maj. Curtis Lawson, a Marine aviator from Sharon, Pa., hid neck deep in water in the jungles of Vietnam while North Vietnamese soldiers with dogs searched for him after his plane went down in the DMZ. He was plucked to safety by an American helicopter after U.S. fighter jets gave cover.

An explosion rips a titanium furnace at Reactive Metals Inc. on Warren Avenue in Niles, rocking the city’s West End and sending three workers to Trumbull Memorial Hospital.

July 28, 1958: A spectacular fire guts the old F.W. Woolworth Co. building at 27 E. Federal Street, causing damage in excess of $150,000. Hundreds of people watch as 10 fire companies battle the blaze.

A $100,000 fire that threatened to wipe out an entire block of Downtown Sharon, guts the Jenny Shop and extensively damages five other stores and professional offices.

July 28, 1933: The U.S. Army Engineers release a report that recommends against construction of a Beaver-Mahoning Canal that would link Struthers to the Ohio River.

Broadcaster Lowell Thomas, who spoke to service clubs at the Hotel Ohio, devotes three minutes of his NBC radio show to singing the praises of Youngstown, its steel industry and its parks.