Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2009. There are 145 days left in the year. On this date in 1974, in the wake of damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, President Richard M. Nixon announces during a prime-time address that he would resign at noon the following day, and that Vice President Gerald R. Ford would succeed him.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte sets sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile. In 1876, Thomas A. Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph. In 1942, six convicted Nazi saboteurs who’d landed in the U.S. are executed in Washington, D.C.; two others are spared. In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signs the United Nations Charter. The Soviet Union declares war against Japan during World War II. In 1953, the United States and South Korea initial a mutual security pact. In 1963, Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” takes place as thieves make off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

August 8, 1984: Trumbull County Treasurer Harold Williams will lay off 10 employees at the end of August to avoid operating in the red by year’s end.

Canfield City Council unanimously approves action to separate the city from the township and passes legislation to place a 4.5-mill bond issue on the November ballot to improve the city’s water system.

Sharon Steel Corp. places its 65,000-square-foot office building on Route 62 in Hubbard Township on the open real estate market.

August 8, 1969: Five men, four from Akron and one from Kent, all identified as Black Muslims, are charged in the abduction and attempted murder of William Evans, a Youngstown man said to be an ex-member of the sect.

The Mahoning County Joint Vocational School Board approves a revised plan to build a larger school, which will cost $6.7 million.

The General Electric Co. is given a $3 million government contract for light bulbs, greatly benefiting the company’s Youngstown, Niles and Warren plants.

August 8, 1959: A Cincinnati couple and their 3-year-old daughter escape serious injury when their rented Cessna four-seater crashes while landing at Bird Airport. All are in good condition at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Four Columbiana County youths are killed and a fifth seriously injured when their speeding car rams a bridge abutment in U.S. route 30 near Minerva. Dead are Orland Parrish, Lloyd R. Williams, Edward G. Flick and Frank E. Wilson.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Thomas A. Beil is investigating attempts by local professional gamblers to collect $27,000 they won from a Youngstown businessman at Squaw Creek Country Club after a Youngstown Chamber of Commerce golf outing.

August 8, 1934: The Columbiana County Bar Association passes a memorial resolution praising Judge Louis Townsend Farr as a judge who was “able and fearless” in his service on the appeals court.

Four Harvard physicians set up a clinic at North Side Hospital dedicated to reducing deaths from the heat in local mills. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and Sharon Steel Hoop Co. have contributed to make space in the hospital available for the study.

More than 20,000 people are expected at the annual picnic of the Youngstown Retail Grocers’ and Meat Dealers’ picnic at Idora Park.