Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2009. There are 134 days left in the year. On this date in 1909, the first automobile races are run at the just-opened Indianapolis Motor Speedway; the winner of the first event is auto engineer Louis Schwitzer, who drove a Stoddard-Dayton touring car twice around the 2.5-mile track at an average speed of 57.4 mph.
In 1812, the USS Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerriere off Nova Scotia during the War of 1812. In 1918, “Yip! Yip! Yaphank,” a musical revue by Irving Berlin featuring Army recruits from Camp Upton in Yaphank, N.Y., opens on Broadway. In 1929, the radio comedy program “Amos ’n’ Andy,” starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, makes its network debut on NBC. In 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approves the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler. In 1942, during World War II, about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launch a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering more than 50-percent casualties. In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission prohibits so-called “giveaway” radio and TV shows, saying they violate lottery laws. (The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the ban in 1954, ruling that giveaway shows fall short of being lotteries because participants do not pay in order to try to win prizes.) In 1955, severe flooding in the northeastern U.S. claims some 200 lives. In 1960, a tribunal in Moscow convicts American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford wins the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Kansas City. In 1991, Soviet hard-liners announce to a shocked world that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has been removed from power. (The coup attempt collapses two days later.) In 1999, confronting questions about possible past drug use, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush tells reporters he had not used illegal drugs in 25 years, and added that if voters insisted on knowing more, “they can go find somebody else to vote for.” In 2004, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry fights back against campaign allegations that he had exaggerated his combat record in Vietnam, accusing President George W. Bush of using a Republican front group “to do his dirty work.” Google begins trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, ending the day up $15.34 at $100.34.
August 19, 1984: On the eve of the Republican National Convention, U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, R-17th, is one of a group of Midwest Republicans who say that if President Reagan wants to win, he’d do well to shift his attention from the Sunbelt to the Midwest.
The number of sexual abuse cases involving children in Trumbull County has more than doubled in a year, paralleling dramatic increases in such cases nationwide.
Dignitaries from Ohio and Pennsylvania gather at Pymatuning State Park near Jamestown, Pa., to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the completion of the Pymatuning Dam.
August 19, 1969: Youngstown State University will realize more than $38 million and three new buildings over two years from the state’s $2.2 billion appropriations bill for higher education signed by Gov. James A. Rhodes.
A truck driver narrowly escapes serious injury when several chunks of concrete block thrown from the Webb Road underpass on Interstate 680 crash through the windshield. The driver, Thomas Howard, 29, was treated at St. Elizabeth Hospital.
Youngstown’s Charter Revision Commission will hire a consultant to assist it in preparing a general alteration of the rules by which the city operates.
August 19, 1959: Youngstown police fire two warning shots to stop a 30-year-old Girard man suspected of burglary at the Steel City Electric Co. on Mahoning Avenue.
Opening at the Warner Theater, “The Big Circus” staring Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre.
Kenley Players in Warren presents “The King and I” starring Betty White and Ted Scott.
August 19, 1934: An examination of court records shows Youngstown has been lenient to drunken drivers; 26 of the 389 men and women arrested so far in 1934 in Youngstown have served no jail sentences and paid no fine.
The United States Census Bureau says Youngstown’s population stands at 174,200.
Youngstown is by far the safest city in Ohio in which to live, according to FBI statistics that show a criminal homicide rate of 5.7 per 100,000, nearly a third that of Cincinnati.