Today is Sunday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2009. There are 333 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2009. There are 333 days left in the year. On this date in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew: Commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; Michael Anderson; Kalpana Chawla; David Brown; Laurel Clark; and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space.

In 1861, Texas votes to secede from the Union. In 1946, Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie is chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations. In 1959, men in Switzerland reject giving women the right to vote by a more than 2-1 referendum margin. (Swiss women gain the right to vote in 1971.) In 1960, four black college students begin a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they’d been refused service. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini receives a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ends nearly 15 years of exile.

February 1, 1984: FBI affidavits say that Youngstown mobster Joseph Naples Jr. gave his blessing to a greenhouse robbery in which three henchmen nearly killed the proprietor before agents who had Naples and his associates under surveillance stepped in.

President Reagan sends Congress a $925 billion budget that contains a $180 billion deficit.

February 1, 1969: Patrolman John E. Lynch III, who was a star football player at Ursuline High School 15 years earlier, breaks up an attempted robbery downtown and captures the suspect with a crushing flying tackle.

Anotherof the area’s unexplained bomb blasts damages a house at 45 Saranac Ave., which was formerly owned by Anthony Sammarone, business agent for Local 377 of the Teamsters Union. Two other blasts have been linked to union unrest.

An 18-year-old girl who tried to “spring” her boyfriend from the Columbiana County Jail in Lisbon winds up behind bars after deputies discover a hacksaw blade she hid in a carton of cigarettes and delivered to the turnkey.

February 1, 1959: A Citizens Action Committee is formed on the recommendation of the Downtown Board of Trade to develop a sweeping plan to revitalize downtown Youngstown.

More than 400 reservists from the tri-state area will be participating in simulated combat missions of the U.S. Air Force Reserve’s 757th Troop Carrier Squadron at Youngstown Municipal Airport. Youngstowners can watch the skies for formations of from nine to 27 Flying Boxcars.

Eight Youngstown University ROTC cadets are sworn in as Army second lieutenants. They are Harry B. Bosch, James R. Cooksey, Donald W. Miller, Eugene W. Williams, Russell J. Colton, Albert Fortine Jr., Ronald R. Iseli and Andrew Zvilna.

Pennsylvania will issue a “59” sticker to update auto license plates rather than issue new metal plates. The state will save $160,000.

February 1, 1934: Three CWA workers, including a foreman and a timekeeper, are in Mahoning County jail as Sheriff William Engelhardt continues his clean-up of the civilian works program in the county. The three, accused of hiring irregularities, will be turned over to federal authorities.

Youngstown district interests that have been leading the fight for a Beaver-Mahoning river canal for decades open a campaign to have the project approved as a Public Works Administration project.

A day-long argument between two roommates over whether a broken alarm clock could be wound using an ice pick ends with the fatal shooting of James Tod, 25, of 114 Canal St.