Today is Monday, April 27, the 117th day of 2009. There are 248 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Monday, April 27, the 117th day of 2009. There are 248 days left in the year. On this date in 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

In 1805, during the First Barbary War, a U.S.-led force of Marines and mercenaries captures the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli, Libya. In 1822, the 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, is born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. In 1865, the steamer Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 people, mostly freed Union prisoners of war. In 1965, broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow dies in Pawling, N.Y., two days after turning 57. In 1973, acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigns after it is revealed that he had handed over bureau files on the Watergate burglary to the Nixon White House. In 1978, fifty-one construction workers plunge to their deaths when a scaffold inside a cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station site in West Virginia falls 168 feet to the ground.

April 27, 1984: Patrick Duffy Jr. says Idora Park will be open for the 1984 season, despite a devastating fire that destroyed half the Wild Cat roller coaster, two other rides and much of the midway. Damage is estimated at $2.5 million.

A second woman is arrested at the Shady Lady Lounge, 450 W. Federal St., by a Youngstown plainclothesman, charged with baring her breasts during a dance routine.

April 27, 1969: The Youngstown and Hubbard Rotary Clubs win Rotary International Governor’s Cups for exemplary public service.

Five Youngstown district men and a former Warren man are among 176 applicants who passed the Ohio bar examination. They are William R. Copperman, James J. Corbett, Martin N. Goldsmith, Ronald C. Mostov, James P. Puckett and Thomas F. Norton.

April 27, 1959: A 1,200 pound safe containing $2,200 in cash is taken from the Richman Bros. store in the Boardman Plaza.

The Coast Guard is searching Lake Erie for the body of 1st Lt. Joseph L. McCune, a Youngstown Air Force Base pilot whose F102A “Delta Dagger” crashed into Lake Erie 10 miles off the Presque Isle lighthouse.

Henry S. Moyer of Scarsdale, N.Y., formerly of Youngstown, assumes the presidency of the American Council of Judaism Philanthropic fund. He has long been active in religious and civic affairs.

April 27, 1934: Henry A. Butler, 61, son of Joseph G. Butler Jr., pioneer Youngstown industrialist and one of the outstanding businessmen of Youngstown, dies of a heart attack in the North Side unit of the Youngstown Hospital Association.

Fred A. LaBelle, former secretary of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, is sentenced to one to 10 years in the Ohio Penitentiary after being convicted of embezzling $8,500 in MVSD funds.