Today is Saturday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2009. There are 341 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2009. There are 341 days left in the year. On this date in 1908, is considered the starting date of the Boy Scouts movement in England, under the aegis of Robert Baden-Powell.

In 1742, Charles VII is elected Holy Roman Emperor during the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1848, James W. Marshall discovers a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that leads to the gold rush of ’49. In 1924, the Russian city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary leader. (However, it has since been renamed St. Petersburg.) In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill conclude a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco. In 1978, a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunges through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrates, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.

January 24, 1984: One of three men whose hiring was discussed by Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. and mobsters Orland and Charles Carabbia in a tape recorded conversation in 1981 is hired by Traficant to work in the civil branch in the Mahoning County Sheriff’s office.

The board of trustees of Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine approves a $15 million six-year capital improvement package.

January 24, 1969: Youngstown area golfers get in a few rounds as some courses open during a stretch of unseasonably warm weather.

A 37-year-old Akron man is arrested and charged with kidnapping his 15-year-old niece from Streetsboro High School after the girl tipped off a service station attendant in Newcomerstown.

January 24, 1959: Estimates of flood losses in Ohio are placed at $100 million; $5 million in the Youngstown area.

The Mahoning County Republican Executive Committee endorses GOP county Chairman Chester Bailey for Postmaster of Youngstown.

William F. Maag Jr. is re-elected president of the Reuben McMillan Free Library Association at the 78th annual meeting at the Youngstown Club.

January 24, 1934: Fred A. LaBelle, on trial on a charge of embezzling $8,500 from the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, testifies that he did not sign any of the disputed vouchers that he is accused of forging and he “got no money unlawfully from anybody at any time.”

Nine possible airport sites are submitted to Youngstown Mayor Mark E. Moore by CE Yacoli, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce airport survey committee.