Today in history

Today is Thursday, April 9, the 99th day of 2009. There are 266 days left in the year. On this date in 1959, NASA announces the selection of America’s first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.

In 1682, French explorer Robert de La Salle claims the Mississippi River Basin for France. In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. In 1939, singer Marian Anderson performs a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington after she is denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1942, American and Philippine defenders on Bataan capitulate to Japanese forces; the surrender is followed by the notorious Bataan Death March which claims thousands of lives. In 1959, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright dies in Phoenix at age 91. In 1965, the newly built Astrodome in Houston features its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York Yankees. (The Astros win, 2-1, in 12 innings.) In 1983, the Space Shuttle Challenger ends its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In 1988, pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim hijackers who seized a Kuwait Airways jetliner on April 5 kill one of their hostages as the plane sits on the ground in Larnaca, Cyprus.

April 9, 1984: Packard Electric hourly workers ratify an agreement that will lead to the establishment of a plastics compounding facility at the company’s vacant Rootstown plant and eventually provide 60 new jobs for the area.

Trumbull County Common Pleas judges grant pay raises ranging from 60 cents an hour to 89 cents an hour, to 13 staff members of the court. Total cost to the general fund will be $12,000 a year.

Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro, meeting with officials of Mahoning County, Youngstown State University and the Eastgate Development and Transportation Agency, says it’s time the city gets in the running for state and federal transportation grants.

April 9, 1969: Atty. Richard P. McLaughlin, general counsel of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, tells the Youngstown Rotary Club that “organized labor, by and large, has responded very favorably to the appointments by the new (Nixon) administration in Washington.” He predicts that Labor Secretary George Shultz will “really improve upon the government’s efforts to develop training and retraining programs.”

Jeneen Sheban, daughter of Atty. and Mrs. Joseph Sheban of Youngstown, is in Washington, as Ohio’s Cherry Blossom Princess.

April 9, 1959: Youngstown City Council approves a $67,000 project to eliminate the Powers Way “spoke” in the five-way intersection at Poland Avenue and Center Street.

Democratic House members, facing re-election campaigns are giving Gov. Michael DiSalle fits, denying him some of the tax increases he says are necessary to balance the state’s budget. The House cut DiSalle’s proposed 2-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes to a penny.

Testifying before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee, Canfield Mayor Earl Roudebush denies that his city is a “speed trap.” The Canfield Mayor’s Court has collected $202,000 over 30 months and handled more than half of all State Highway Patrol traffic arrests in Mahoning County.

April 9, 1934: Mahoning County Commissioners return from Washington, D.C., unsuccessful in their effort to get national relief Commissioner Harry Hopkins to overrule Ohio Gov. George White, who has ordered relief offices in the county closed until the commissioners pay their share of $156,000.

Fred A. LaBelle says thieves broke into a safe in the Chamber of Commerce offices over the weekend, stealing $600 and documents he intended to use in his defense in his embezzlement trial.

Fire sweeps through the Canfield Bakery operated by Fred Baehr, the Edward Credico Shoe Store and the Women’s Wear Store operated by Mrs. Caroline Frederick in the Canfield business district. The loss is estimated at $40,000.