Friday, August 28, 2009
Today is Friday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2009. There are 125 days left in the year. On this date in 1963, 200,000 people participate in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
In 1609, English sea explorer Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, reach present-day Delaware Bay. In 1907, United Parcel Service has its beginnings as the American Messenger Company of Seattle. In 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, is abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Miss., by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he was found brutally slain three days later. In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clash in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominates Hubert H. Humphrey for president. In 1983, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin announces his resignation. In 1995, a mortar shell tears through a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, killing some three dozen people and triggering NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs.
August 28, 1984: Idora Park, a Youngstown landmark since the turn of the century, will close on Labor Day. The park succumbed to a gradual decline in business after a spring fire destroyed its signature roller coaster and other rides.
The Miami Hurricanes, quarterbacked by Boardman’s Bernie Kosar, shrug off their preseason ranking as No. 10 and knock off top-ranked Auburn, 20-18.
Unemployment in the Youngstown a-Warren area is reported at 16.7 percent, about 6 percent higher than the national average.
More than 600 area residents swarm the Holiday Inn North in Liberty where the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services began taking applications for more than 100 jobs at the soon-to-open T. J. Maxx clothing store in Boardman.
August 28, 1969: Thomas P. Racich, associate director of the Youngstown Area Community Action council, is named to succeed James Oliver as executive director of the local anti-poverty program.
St. Elizabeth Hospital is operated for the entire community by nuns who are “color and religion blind,” says Sidney Moyer, chairman of a $1.75 million hospital building campaign.
An old carriage barn at 4 Riverside Drive in Poland has been converted by a group of industrious young people into Bend of the Road Playhouse and will put on weekend performance of a Chekov comedy, “The Marriage Proposal” and a suspense thriller, “Sorry, Wrong Number.”
August 28, 1959: Members of the California congressional delegation, 30 strong, pay tribute to Rep. Michael J. Kirwan for his outstanding contribution to development of California’s water resources.
Coitsville Township, which has been paying Lowellville, Hubbard and New Bedford, for fire protection, is organizing its own fire department.
Paul Welch of Lucius Avenue, Youngstown, is elected “National Saddest Sack” at the organization’s annual meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Sad Sacks are a fun and honorary affiliate of AMVETS. Welsh is a member of AMVETS Post 35 in Youngstown.
August 28, 1934: Republic Steel Corp., third largest in the industry, is the keystone of a $323 million merger of Republic, the Corrigan, McKinney Steel Co. and the Truscon Steel Co.
Mahoning County Sheriff W.J. Englehardt confiscates two slot machines from a store and a restaurant in Wickliffe and is seeking the man who owns the machines.
Frank J. Welsh, who was defeated for Democratic precinct committeeman in Precinct Y of the Fourth Ward by Councilman M.J. Kirwan, asks for a recount and investigation into the election.