Today in history

Today is Friday, April 17, the 107th day of 2009. There are 258 days left in the year. On this date in 1961, some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launch the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.

In 1521, Martin Luther goes before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings. (He is later declared an outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.) In 1790, American statesman Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia at age 84. In 1941, Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany in World War II. Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro makes an unpublicized meeting to the U.S. Capitol, sitting down with a group of senators and representatives invited by J. William Fulbright, D-Ark, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1964, Ford Motor Co. unveils its new Mustang model at the New York World’s Fair. Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, becomes the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world. In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicts Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. In 1970, the astronauts of Apollo 13 splash down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft. In 1990, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, the civil rights activist and top aide to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., dies in Atlanta at age 64.

April 17, 1984: Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says he’ll join U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams in petitioning the General Services Administration to restore a proposed federal building in downtown Youngstown to 76,000 square feet, a $10 million project, rather than the GSA’s proposal for a smaller, $5 million project.

Boardman Township appears to be out of the woods financially for the time being, but Trustee Robert Bannon warns department heads to rein in overtime costs or face layoffs toward the end of the year.

April 17, 1969: The Youngstown-Warren Area Job Training Center opens at a center on Watt Street as part of a government-business alliance to turn nonworkers into workers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The Ohio Senate is considering a bill co-sponsored by Charles J. Carney of Youngstown, William B. Nye of Akron and William W. Taft of Cleveland to protect shareholders of Ohio-based corporations from conglomerate takeovers.

April 17, 1959: The four candidates for Youngstown mayor outline their platforms during an hour-long television program over WFMJ-TV. Participating are Incumbent Frank X. Kryzan, county Engineer Samuel Gould Jr., Frank R. Franko and county Commissioner Edward Gilronan.

Sharon Fireman Kenneth Feigert is rescued by fellow firemen after being overcome by smoke while fighting a fire in the second floor of an E. State Street house.

April 17, 1934: Youngstown Steel Door Co. adds 26 men to the payroll at its Meridian Road plant, bringing the work force to 200. The company has received orders for thousands of its patented freight car doors, enough to assure steady operation for three months.

Twelfth anniversary exercises mark the organization of the Prayer Band of Elizabeth Baptist Church on Mahoning Avenue.