Today is Sunday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2009. There are 347 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2009. There are 347 days left in the year. On this date in 1919, the Paris Peace Conference, held to negotiate peace treaties ending World War I, opens in Versailles, France.

In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reaches the Hawaiian Islands, which he dubs the “Sandwich Islands.” In 1892, comedian Oliver Hardy is born in Harlem, Ga. In 1904, actor Cary Grant is born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England. In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship takes place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brings his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor. In 1943, during World War II, the Soviets announce they have broken through the long Nazi siege of Leningrad. (It is another year before the siege is fully lifted.) A wartime ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread in the U.S. — aimed at reducing bakeries’ demand for metal replacement parts — goes into effect. In 1949, Charles Ponzi, engineer of one of the most spectacular swindles in history, dies destitute in the charity ward of a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at age 66. In 1957, a trio of B-52s completes the first nonstop, round-the-world flight by jet planes, landing at March Air Force Base in California after more than 45 hours aloft. In 1967, Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the “Boston Strangler,” is convicted in Cambridge, Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. (Sentenced to life, DeSalvo is killed in prison in 1973.) In 1990, a jury in Los Angeles acquits former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation charges.

January 18, 1984: Two officers of a West German company are in Youngstown to officially unveil a plan to team with American investors to open the Ronneburg Brewery-Youngstown in North Jackson.

Youngstown-Warren area unemployment drops from 23 percent to 14.1 percent during 1983, the strongest improvement among the country’s 335 metropolitan statistical areas.

The Mahoning County Bureau of Immigration and Passports is opened at the courthouse annex, 2801 Market St.

January 18, 1969: The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and Avnet Inc., a New York-base electronics and automotive equipment producer, reach an agreement in principle to consolidate the firms.

Spec. 5 John Mirich, 22, of Elm Street, Struthers, is killed in a helicopter crash on a flight between Saigon and Cambodia. He is Mahoning County’s second Vietnam fatality of 1969 and the 64th of the war.

The first step toward possible establishment of a medical school at Youngstown State University is announced by the Mahoning County Medical Society. A contract for a $30,000 feasibility study is awarded to a Chicago consultant.

January 18, 1959: Mahoning County commissioners should provide a new county home for old folks before spending hundreds of thousands of dollars modernizing the courthouse, say a number of civic leaders and welfare leaders interviewed by the Vindicator.

A federal bill to give communities money to help build up their airports is back in Congress and, if passed, probably will give Youngstown an opportunity in future years to make its municipal airport suitable for the commercial jet age.

Stepped-up activities of the Catholic Service League in 1958 cause a record of $103,636 in aid distribution, officials report at their annual meeting.

Harold Ohl, local display advertising manager of the The Vindicator, is elected president of the Mahoning County Board of Education.

January 18, 1934: A mother and two small children are in Warren City Hospital and seven other people are nursing minor injuries received when a 2,500 gallon water tank falls 40 feet, crushing a house at Leavittsburg.

W.J. Williams, a U.S. marshal whose term expires in February, will be a referee in bankruptcy in Youngstown, succeeding Atty, Paul E. Carson.

Youngstown steel executives attending a tri-state meeting of steel men in Cleveland are told by W.S. Tower, executive secretary of the American Iron and Steel Institute, to expect a shortage of skilled mill labor by spring.

The village of Rogers in Columbiana County takes the first steps to secure a 163-acre airport, taking an option to lease a field owned by Edna B. Swane with an option to purchase it for a price not to exceed $50,000.