Years ago

August 30, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Sunday, Aug. 30, the 242nd day of 2009. There are 123 days left in the year. On this date in 1983, Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first black American astronaut to travel in space as he blasted off aboard the Challenger.

In 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of “Frankenstein,” is born in London. In 1861, Union Gen. John C. Fremont institutes martial law in Missouri and declares slaves there to be free. (President Lincoln countermands the order days later). In 1862, Union forces are defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va. In 1905, Ty Cobb makes his Major-League debut as a player for the Detroit Tigers, hitting a double in his first at-bat in a game against the New York Highlanders. (The Tigers win, 5-3.) In 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrives in Japan to set up Allied occupation headquarters. In 1963, the “Hot Line” communications link between Washington and Moscow goes into operation. In 1967, the Senate confirms the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1989, a federal jury in New York finds “hotel queen” Leona Helmsley guilty of income tax evasion, but acquits her of extortion. (Helmsley serves 18 months behind bars, a month at a halfway house and two months under house ar- rest.) In 1997, Americans receive word of the car crash in Paris that claimed the lives of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul.

August 30, 1984: The 17th Congressional District race kicks off with a debate between U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, a Republican, and his Democratic challenger, Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant. Jr.

The 13th annual John Young Arts Festival opens at the main office of Bank One, in cooperation with the Butler Institute of American Art.

John Lincoln Marks, who served three terms as a congressman from Sharon, Pa., after which he took a job with a Washington law firm, says moderate Republicans are allowing the right wing to take over the party without a fight.

August 30, 1969: Opening Day attendance at the Canfield Fair sets a record of 86,384, a gain of 8,537 over the first day a year earlier.

Youngstown police arrest three youths for opening fire hydrants in the Thorn Hill School area.

Marine Cpl. William A. Gorvet, 21, serving in Vietnam since Dec. 1, 1968, is killed in action in Quang Nam Province.

A carburetor malfunction is believed to have caused a plane crash that killed Nick Parish, 48, and John C. Sudol, 33, of McDonald near Southern Airways.

August 30, 1959: Lester F. Donnell, Youngstown businessman and civic leader, will head the drive to win approval by Mahoning County residents of a $2.5 million bond issue needed for the $14 million West Branch Reservoir.

Thirty-eight altar boys and an assistant pastor from St. Mathias Church escape serious injury when their bus rolls down a 200-foot embankment from Campbell Street to Shady Run Road. The Rev. Cyril A. Adamko was driving the bus returning from an outing to a Cleveland Indians baseball game.

Maj. John Padach Jr., a former All-City and Youngstown University football star, is the first Marine Corps pilot to qualify in an F8U Crusader jet based aboard an aircraft carrier. .

August 30, 1934: There is new hope for speedy progress toward a Beaver-Mahoning waterway as President Roosevelt announces his plans to pursue a $500 million national waterway and conservation program.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. announces a cutback to a five-day week and 10 percent pay cuts for most salaried employees.

Barney J. Gillen is completing 15 years as chief of the Warren Police Department during which the department has had only one unsolved murder case. Gillen says there’s a suspect in that case.