Today in history

Today is Thursday, July 2, the 183rd day of 2009. There are 182 days left in the year. On this date in 1776, the Continental Congress passes a resolution saying that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

In 1809, Shawnee leader Tecumseh begins organizing an Indian Confederacy to resist the growing spread of white American settlers. In 1881, President James A. Garfield is shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield dies the following September. (Guiteau is hanged in June 1882.) In 1926, the United States Army Air Corps is created. In 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight along the equator. In 1961, author Ernest Hemingway shoots himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress. In 1979, the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin is released to the public. In 1989, former Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko dies in Moscow at age 79. In 1994, a USAir DC-9 crashes in poor weather at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, killing 37 of the 57 people aboard. In 1996, electricity and phone service are knocked out for millions of customers from Canada to the Southwest after power lines throughout the West failed on a record-hot day. In 1999, “Godfather” author Mario Puzo dies on Long Island, N.Y., at age 78.

July 2, 1984: Several Trumbull County school districts and governmental units are bracing for unexpected tax revenue losses as a number of major industrial plants have dramatically reduced their personal property tax valuation.

Quarterback Cliff Stoudt leads the Birmingham Stallions to a 36-17 win over the Tampa Bay Bandits in the United States Football League playoffs and will advance to the Eastern Conference championship game.

Youngstown area motorists must shell out more money to pay for auto insurance than car owners in any other Ohio metropolitan area except Cleveland. In five years, the average bill for a Youngstown driver with a good record has increased from $343 to $463 a year.

July 2, 1969: Boardman Police Chief Dan Maggianetti Jr. tells trustees that juveniles are believed responsible for 61 percent of the crime in the township.

Some 150 singing adults and children on welfare occupy the Parkade offices of the Mahoning County Welfare Department to emphasize their plight in not receiving July welfare checks on time.

The number of voting precincts in Youngstown will be slashed from 237 to 216, says James Dellick, elections director.

July 2, 1959: The Most Rev. Emmet M. Walsh, bishop of Youngstown, announces creation of two new parishes in Warren. The Rev. Arthur M. Nist, pastor of St. Ann’s in East Liverpool, will be pastor of the new Blessed Sacrament Parish on Reeves Road; The Rev. William J. Lawler, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Wellsville, will be pastor of the new St. Pius X Parish at Drexel Avenue at Mountcrest Street.

Mayor Frank X. Kryzan is studying a suggestion by City Building Inspector John Yavorsky that use of a gasoline tank under City Hall be abandoned. The suggestion comes after fumes from a similar tank exploded at the Central Square Garage.

At the Kenley Players in Warren, Dick Shawn in “Seven Year Itch.” Tickets: $1.10 to $2.20 for evening shows; 90 cents to $1.65 for the Sunday matinee.

July 2, 1934: Mahoning County Coroner M.E. Hayes, the only county official who can arrest the sheriff, serves Sheriff W.J. Engelhardt with notice of an injunction restraining any interference with dog races that are scheduled for the Canfield fairgrounds.

Burglars ransack the desk at the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel & Tin Workers headquarters, taking ledger books listing members of every A.A. lodge in the district and showing the dues paid.

Municipal Judge H.P. Beckenbach rules that any hotel or bona fide restaurant may sell 3.2 beer at any hour of the day.

A phantom-like madman who seems bent on killing off the employees of the Wheeling Steel Corp. shoots and kills two workers in the mill yards and disappears in the darkness.