Years Ago

Today is Friday, Aug. 14, the 226th day of 2009. There are 139 days left in the year. On this date in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law.

In 1848, the Oregon Territory is created. In 1900, international forces, including U.S. Marines, enter Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which is aimed at purging China of foreign influence. In 1908, a race riot erupts in Springfield, Ill., as a white mob begins setting black-owned homes and businesses on fire; at least two blacks and five whites are killed in the violence. In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announces that Japan has surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II. In 1947, Pakistan becomes independent of British rule. In 1958, Elvis Presley’s mother, Gladys Love Smith Presley, dies in Memphis, Tenn., at age 46. In 1969, British troops go to Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. In 1973, the U.S. bombing of Cambodia comes to a halt effective at midnight.

August 14, 1984: The Warren-Trumbull Community Improvement Corp. recommends approval of $5.2 million in low-interest industrial development bonds for job-creating projects, including $2 million for United States Can Co. in Hubbard and $1.2 million for Warren Tool Corp.

Ohio Senate President Harry Meshel, D-Youngstown, announces the release of more than $10 million from the State Controlling Board to renovate Ward Beecher Hall at Youngstown State University.

Mayor Patrick Ungaro says that despite some political opposition to the building of a rehabilitation center for nonviolent offenders on Market Street, there is little the city could do to stop the Mahoning County Community Correction Association from opening the center.

August 14, 1969: The Rev. Martin E. Matulik, a McDonald native and pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in East Palestine, will conduct the funeral Mass for William Lennon, the slain father of the singing Lennon Sisters. Father Matulik, a close friend of the Lennon family, officiated at the weddings of two of the sisters, and will leave for California to conduct the funeral.

Two 17-year-old East Side youths, one carrying a gun, are arrested within minutes of an armed robbery at the Peltz Auto Transmission Shop of Forest Avenue.

Harry Meshel, for five years executive assistant to Mayor Anthony B. Flask, is named by the mayor as Youngstown’s urban renewal director, succeeding Atty. David N. Hill, who resigned to take a job in private industry.

August 14, 1959: A 1960 budget request for $717,500 for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County is approved by library trustees and sent to the county Budget commission.

Probate Judge Clifford M. Woodside, 68, is in fair condition in North Side Hospital after suffering a heart attack.

A 12-year-old Hubbard boy is the 10th case of polio reported in 1959 at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

August 14, 1934: Thirty-one Youngstown, Girard and Niles children — all but three of them recovering from infantile paralysis — leave for a camp on Lake Erie, thanks to the Youngstown Community Chest and Allied Council.

A 30 million pound rock slide at Niagara Falls changes the contour of the falls and shifts more water from the Canadian to the American side. Geologists say the falls could be headed for extinction – in about 20,000 years.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be released by Youngstown banks for loans for home repairs and improvements.