Today is Thursday, April 30, the 120th day of 2009. There are 245 days left in the year. On this

Today is Thursday, April 30, the 120th day of 2009. There are 245 days left in the year. On this date in 1859, the Charles Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities” is first published in serial form in the premiere issue of All the Year Round, a literary magazine owned by Dickens. (The novel is presented in 31 weekly installments.)

In 1789, George Washington takes office in New York as the first president of the United States. In 1803, the United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million. In 1812, Louisiana becomes the 18th state of the Union. In 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St. Louis. In 1909, Juliana, queen of the Netherlands from 1948 to 1980, is born in The Hague. In 1939, the New York World’s Fair officially opens with a ceremony that includes an address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1945, as Russian troops approach his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon announces the U.S. is sending troops into Cambodia, an action that sparks widespread protest. In 1973, Nixon announces the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean.

April 30, 1984: Farrell is awarded a $5 million Urban Development Action Grant that will be used to help finance a $25 million revamping of the Victor Posner Works of the Sharon Steel Corp.

GF Business Systems’ Youngs-town plant lays off about 80 hourly workers, reflecting the completion of some orders and a cutback in new orders. About 300 workers remain actively employed at the plant, which is undergoing an $8.5 million renovation.

Firefighters from Niles, McDonald, Mineral Ridge, McKinley Heights and Howland battle a fire that destroyed the vacant Albee Homes fabrication building on Summit Street in Niles.

April 30, 1969: The Youngstown City School District’s 12-mill levy gains more support, from top management of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and from Local 1331, United Steelworkers Union.

Faith Lutheran Church on Lansdowne Blvd. marks the 25th anniversary of the Rev. A.W. Glessner as pastor.

Dr. Gordon B. Cartson, vice president of business and finance at Ohio State University, tells the OSU Alumni Club of Mahoning County that Communist influences can be easily seen in campus disorders and compares student demonstrators to Nazi storm troopers.

April 30, 1959: Joseph J. Grande, 28, of Marion Avenue, wins a $125,000 verdict against Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and the Erie Railroad for injuries received in a 1956 mill accident. It is believed to be the largest verdict ever in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority reveals that three realtors hired to negotiate land options for controversial low-rent housing projects in Youngstown have resigned, as opposition to the housing projects has developed in the city.

Spring preview opening of Idora Park: all 29 rides in operation; playing at the ballroom, Stan Kenton and his Orchestra, admission, $2.

April 30, 1934: State Rep. Earl D. Haefner demands that liquor licenses held by all requirements of the state liquor law be revoked, and W.P. Barnum, Mahoning County Republican Party chairman, warns that if state officials “don’t clean up the mess, the people will.”

Helen Knight of Niles is leading girls at Miami University, Oxford, in daily rope-skipping exercises on Oxford’s boardwalks to keep their figures trim.

About 75 members of the Campbell Democratic Club, meeting at the Ukrainian Hall, call for “young blood” to take over the Mahoning County Democratic Party. Former Youngstown Mayor Joseph P. Heffernan calls for the replacement of Chairman John J. Farrell, who he says represents the opposite of progressive leadership in the Roosevelt spirit.