Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 25, the 237th day of 2009. There are 128 days left in the year. On his date in 1944, during World War II, Paris is liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.
In 1875, Capt. Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, getting from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours. In 1916, the National Park Service is established within the Department of the Interior. In 1928, an expedition led by Richard E. Byrd sets sail from Hoboken, N.J., on its journey to Antarctica. In 1943, U.S. forces liberate New Georgia in the Solomon Islands from the Japanese during World War II. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and their widows. In 1984, author Truman Capote is found dead in a Los Angeles mansion; he was 59. In 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, dies with her father in an airliner crash in Auburn, Maine. In 1999, the FBI, reversing itself after six years, admits that its agents might have fired some potentially flammable tear gas canisters on the final day of the 1993 standoff with the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, but said it continued to believe law enforcement agents did not start the fire which engulfed the cult’s compound. In 2004, an Army investigation finds that 27 people attached to an intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad either approved or participated in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
August 25, 1984: Youngstown State University graduates must prove to be loyal and supporting to the school if it is to remain strong, former YSU president Dr. John J. Coffelt says in his address at summer commencement exercises.
Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant, who was acquitted in U.S. District Court on charges he took $163,000 in bribes, says the IRS has informed him that it is seeking $50,000 it says he owes in back taxes.
Thomas Altiere is named Howland Township police chief, succeeding David Hartsock.
August 25, 1969: Youngstown Transit Co. Is postponing planned reductions in schedules pending a study by the city and company on which parts of its service are causing losses.
Stagnant high pressure systems that keep air pollution near the ground are responsible for a pollution advisory that the U.S. Weather Bureau has issued for the entire state of Ohio.
August 25, 1959: A last-minute act by the Ohio Legislature to raise auto license plate fees from $10 to $12.50 is vetoed by Gov. Michael V. DiSalle.
Assigning needy people to work out their relief aid is suitable in a smaller community, but hasn’t been too successful in places the size of Youngstown, says I.L. Feuer, Mahoning County welfare director.
Nineteen more polio cases are reported in Ohio, the state health department says, bringing the total for the year to 105.
August 25, 1934: Orders for two Steckel type cold strip mills are received by the Cold Metal Process Co. from mills in Chicago and Pittsburgh.
Lamont Hughes, president of the Carnegie Steel Co., and L.A. Burnett, vice president, are among the guests of honor at the company’s annual picnic in Idora Park.