Sunday, August 23, 2009
Today is Sunday, Aug. 23, the 235th day of 2009. There are 130 days left in the year. On this date in 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. (On this date in 1977, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis proclaims that “any stigma and disgrace should be forever removed” from their names.)
In 1305, Scottish rebel leader Sir William Wallace is executed by the English for treason. In 1775, Britain’s King George III proclaims the American colonies in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.” In 1914, Japan declares war against Germany in World War I. In 1926, silent film star Rudolph Valentino dies in New York at age 31. In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree to a nonaggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in Moscow. In 1944, Romanian prime minister Ion Antonescu is dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies. In 1973, a bank robbery-turned-hostage-taking begins in Stockholm, Sweden; by the time the standoff ends, the four hostages had come to empathize with their captors, a psychological condition now referred to as “Stockholm Syndrome.”
August 23, 1984: Lyn Nofzinger, political consultant and longtime friend of President Reagan, tells the Vindicator’s Bertram de Souza that Ohio is central to Reagan’s re-election bid and he will visit the Buckeye State during the campaign.
A two-tone Chevrolet El Camino rolls off the General Motors assembly line in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, the first Mexican-made vehicle in the company’s history intended for sale in the U.S. market.
Fire destroys the administration building of the old Christ Mission fresh air camp on Leffingwell Road in Canfield.
August 23, 1969: Vandals hit the home of Henry Jahn, a fifth grade teacher at Poland Union Elementary School, lighting kerosene in his driveway, throwing firecrackers and writing on his car and garage.
Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Lynn B. Griffith Jr. orders the Baltimore & Ohio and Erie-Lackawanna railroads to build a grade crossing on Southern Boulevard to discourage students from crossing the tracks at unmarked areas on their way to and from Western Reserve High School.
August 23, 1959: Some 2,500 employees of the East Ohio Gas Co. in Youngstown and eight other cities are threatening a strike unless negotiations result in a new contract.
More than 100,000 visitors are expected in Titusville, Pa., during a celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of Col. Edward Drake’s first oil well, Aug. 27, 1859.
August 23, 1934: A father and son from Vandergrift, Pa., are killed and five others are injured in a head-on collision on Youngstown-Akron Road in Austintown. The dead and four of the injured were riding in a Ford V-8 coach returning from a visit to the World’s Fair at Chicago.
Three women win seats as precinct committee members after the Mahoning County Board of Elections settles eight ties in the primary election with the toss of a coin. The fourth woman involved in a tie did not win because her opponent was a woman.
The New York Stock Exchange approves the listing of 150,000 shares of 51‚Ñ2 preferred stock for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.