Today in history

April 23, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Thursday, April 23, the 113th day of 2009. There are 252 days left in the year. This date in 1564 is believed to be the birthday of English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare; he died 52 years later, also on April 23.

In 1789, President-elect George Washington moves into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York. In 1791, the 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, is born in Franklin County, Pa. In 1896, the Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen is publicly demonstrated in New York City. In 1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hits the first of his then-record 755 home runs, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The Braves win, 7-5.) In 1968, student protesters begin occupying buildings on the campus of Columbia University in New York; police put down the protests a week later.

April 23, 1984: A site selection team from the General Services Administration will come to Youngstown to review possible locations for a new downtown federal building.

Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste, House Speaker Vernal G. Riffe Jr. and Secretary of State Sherrod Brown give their endorsements to former Vice President Walter Mondale for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Fire of undetermined origin strikes the Berk Enterprise warehouse at 817 E. Market St. in Warren, sending thick white smoke into the surrounding neighborhood.

April 23, 1969: Two Youngstown men are charged by federal agents with conspiracy and possession and sale of counterfeit money.

Ernest Root, 80, and his wife, Zula, 62, of Youngstown are killed when their car was rammed broadside in Route 82 at Sodom-Hutchins Road in Vienna township.

Pfc. Richard Keith Lemmon, 22, of Youngstown, a member of the 1st Air Cavalry Division, is reported killed by hostile fire in combat operations 45 miles from Saigon, South Vietnam. He was a 1965 graduate of Boardman High School and attended DeVry Electronics School in Chicago.

April 23, 1959: The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District requests a 3.5 percent increase in wholesale water rates charged to the member cities of Niles and Youngstown. The cities are expected to absorb the increases without increasing consumer rates.

Dog owners in the city and county are warned by county Dog Warden Dan Pecchio that they face arrest unless their pets are licensed and inoculated against rabies.

Edgar L. Traxler, 69, retired president of the Niles Bank Co., dies of a cerebral hemorrhage while working in the yard of his Niles Cortland Road home.

April 23, 1934: Pastors of Youngstown churches rally the people to the 16th annual Community Fund drive. They say meeting the Fund goal of $225,000 is important to 30 agencies that depend on it.

Clarence Irwin, a Youngstown steel worker, is among the “young bloods” at the 59th annual convention of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers in Pittsburgh, who have proposed joining forces with the coal, automobile and railroad union men in presenting a united front.

Sam Orr, president of the Truck Drivers’ and Chauffeurs local, says that truck drivers at the Ozersky Brothers Baker walked out for an hour after one driver was discharged for union activities.