Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2009. There are 137 days left in the year. On this date in 1977, Elvis Presley dies at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.

In 1812, Detroit falls to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812. In 1858, a telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan is transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth dies in New York at age 53. In 1954, Sports Illustrated is first published by Time Inc. In 1956, Adlai E. Stevenson is nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In 1959, Fleet Adm. William F. Halsey Jr. dies on Fishers Island, N.Y. at age 76. In 1987, 156 people are killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes while trying to take off from Detroit. In 2000, delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominate Al Gore for president.

August 16, 1984: General Motors Corp. hopes to cut $220 million from its annual health insurance bill of $2.2 billion by offering 350,000 hourly workers three medical care options to choose from.

Youngstown Thermal Co. announces plans to expand its service area beyond the downtown area and will spend $1.5 million to build a line to the South Side Hospital.

Two descendants of Harry Stevens, the Niles man who made the hot dog a ballpark staple, help celebrate Niles Sesquicentennial at Stevens Park. They are a great grandson, Harry Stevens, and great-granddaughter Pamela Stevens.

August 16, 1969: The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority announces a $2 million proposal to build a 14-floor senior citizens high-rise on W. LaClede Avenue.

A controversial trainload of World War I phosgene gas trundles slowly through Youngstown on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad sometime before dawn on its way to Lockport, N.Y.

Members of the Youth Action Team of Calvary Temple in Youngstown are touring Columbia, South America, singing and preaching to the youth of that country.

August 16, 1959: There are growing indications that the steel strike that is tying the Youngstown economy in knots will be a long one, stretching at least another month or two.

A ruling by the Washington County School Board in Marietta, Ohio, barring nuns from teaching in public schools leaves the elementary school at Churchtown without any teachers. The county prosecutor recommended that the school district drop the four nuns from its payroll.

A full crew of 15 traffic patrolmen will be on duty downtown to see that motorists abide by parking regulations ordered back into effect by Mayor Frank X. Kryzan.

August 16, 1934: Four girls aged three to eight are killed when an automobile driven by a drunken driver runs into five children as they walked near their home on Early Road. Dead are Nancy Ann Lindsay, 3; Lois Lindsay, 8; Bernice Uber, 5, and Dolores Uber, 6. Police are holding Floyd Crossley, 38, who they said stopped nearly a half mile from the scene to remove the body of one of the girls from the bumper. While he was doing so, B.D. Uber, the girls’ father, overtook him, and beat him severely until other intervened.

Mahoning County Republicans say members of their party who switched to vote in the Democratic primary will be back in the GOP fold when the general election is held.

Standard Oil Co. of Ohio will meet its mid-August payroll in Youngstown with silver dollars and local trade associations are cooperating to trace how those dollars are spent and how they affect the local economy.