Today is Tuesday, Jan. 13, the 13th day of 2009. There are 352 days left in the year. On this date

January 13, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 13, the 13th day of 2009. There are 352 days left in the year. On this date in 1794, President George Washington approves a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union. (The number of stripes is later reduced to the original 13.)

In 1864, composer Stephen Foster dies in New York at age 37. In 1898, Emile Zola’s famous defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, “J’accuse,” is published in Paris. In 1941, novelist and poet James Joyce dies in Zurich, Switzerland, less than a month before his 59th birthday. In 1945, during World War II, Soviet forces begin a huge, successful offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe. In 1962, comedian Ernie Kovacs dies in a car crash in west Los Angeles 10 days before his 43rd birthday. In 1966, Robert C. Weaver is named Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Lyndon B. Johnson; Weaver becomes the first black Cabinet member. In 1978, former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey dies in Waverly, Minn., at age 66.

January 13, 1984: Citing an Ohio Ethics Commission opinion, the assistant House minority leader is calling on Gov. Richard Celeste to stop supplemental payments to Lt. Gov. Myrl Shoemaker’s salary. Celeste’s campaign committee was to pay Shoemaker $15,000 a year for four years to supplement his government salary.

Warren City Council authorizes filing an Urban Development Action Grant that would provide a $1 million loan to Dietrich Industries Inc. toward purchase and renovation of the former Wean United Inc. plant. The company would provide about 120 jobs.

Trumbull County Engineer Ed Ryser is elected chairman of the General Policy Board of the Eastgate Development and Transportation Agency.

January 13, 1969: Lykes Corp.’s proposal for a merger to make Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. its wholly owned subsidiary is judged “inadequate” and “not in the best interests” of the local firm by local company directors and two New York investment banking firms.

A bearded gunman takes an estimated several thousand dollars from a stubborn cashier at the Penn-Ohio Plaza service station on Route 7 near the Ohio Turnpike.

Raymond A. Garea is elected president of the Chesterton Club, succeeding William A. Becherer during a meeting in the St. Columba cafeteria.

January 13, 1959: An early morning dynamite bomb blasts the entrance of a gambling joint known as the University Athletic Club at 801 Mason St. in Niles. The bombing was the 63rd in Youngstown since 1951.

The Ohio Bell Telephone Co. is working on a $2.9 million plan for expansion and service improvements, says Walter S. Sparling, company president.

John D. Beeghly, president of the Liberty Manufacturing Corp., is elected a director of the Mahoning National Bank.

January 13, 1934: Nearly 1,000 delegates of the Western Reserve Association of Foremen’s Clubs open the second semiannual regional industrial conference in the auditorium of Youngstown College.

Ohio’s 33rd automobile show opens at Public Hall in Cleveland, depicting the big revolution taking place in motor car transportation.

Three Bessemer plants and 30 open hearths are making steel in Youngstown, bringing mill operations to 35 percent of capacity, an increase of 12 points in a week.

John McNicholas, a wiry little Irishman with flowing white hair known to half of Youngstown as Johnny, celebrates his 99th birthday at his daughter’s Delaware Avenue Home and vows he’ll see 100.