Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Today is Wednesday, March 19, the 79th day of 2008. There are 287 days left in the year. This is the date the swallows traditionally return to the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. On this date in 2003, President Bush orders the start of war against Iraq. (Because of the time difference, it was early March 20 in Iraq.)
In 1859, the opera “Faust” by Charles Gounod premieres in Paris.In 1917, the Supreme Court, in Wilson v. New, upholds the eight-hour work day for railroad workers. In 1918, Congress approves Daylight Saving Time. In 1931, Nevada Gov. Fred B. Balzar signs a measure legalizing casino gambling. In 1945, during World War II, 724 people are killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacks the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan; the ship, however, is saved. In 1945, Adolf Hitler issues his so-called “Nero Decree,” ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.
March 19, 1983: The Canfield High girls basketball team ends the season 20-0, becoming the first basketball squad in the school’s history to go undefeated. They win their third straight Mahoning Valley Conference title and the fourth during the six-year tenure of Coach Bill Wolf.
A 33-year-old East Side man labeled by Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. an important link in the drug traffic chain is given probation after pleading guilty to drug abuse. Traficant said the man had cocaine with a street value of $300,000 at his apartment. The Adult Parole Authority recommended probation based on the man’s social and educational background.
The number of people receiving Aid to Dependent Children of the Unemployed surges in Mahoning County during February.
March 19, 1968: Roberta Kuebler, a 17-year-old Chaney High junior, wins first place among girls at the 7th annual Greater Ohio Science Fair at Archbold with a project on corn and soil, She is the first Youngstown student to win the top award in the state and will represent Ohio at the International Science Fair in Detroit.
Six inmates, five of them felons who are considered dangerous, escape from the Columbiana County Jail and remain at large, despite an early alarm sounded by Prosecutor J. Warren Bettis who saw the men climbing out a rear window and a massive manhunt.
March 19, 1958: Twenty-one freight cars are derailed at the Pittsburgh Lake Erie railroad’s new electronic freight classification yards at Struthers.
Youngstown’s Board of Zoning Appeals clears the way for conversion of the Belmont Theater into a discount store that will be operated by Atlantic Mills World Shoppers Inc.
Twenty-nine pupils in the fifth grade class of Mrs. Julie Kennel leave from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad station in Youngstown for a 21‚Ñ2 day trip to Washington, D.C. The class raised almost all the money to cover the trip during the year, putting on eight plays, a skating party and two bake sales.
March 19, 1933: Three gunmen, one armed with a machine gun, kidnap Pete Myers Jr., 15, at the Myers home in Masury. The men first represented themselves as federal agents, there to question the Myers chauffeur about rum running. They left behind a ransom note.
Exhibiting confidence in the economy, Wehle Baking Co. of Youngstown orders 30 new trucks from the L.F. Donnell dealership. Wehle operates 50 trucks in its “oven to home” delivery system.
Sheriff W.J. Engelhardt seizes 600 gallons of liquor sealed in five gallon cans stored in a barn at the rear of 2319 Hillman St. The sheriff believes the liquor was shipped to Youngstown from another city and was destined for sale to bootleggers in the city.