Today in history

Today is Thursday, July 16, the 197th day of 2009. There are 168 days left in the year. On this date in 1969, Apollo 11, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

In 1862, David G. Farragut becomes the first rear admiral in the United States Navy. In 1909, the Audi auto company is founded in Zwickau, Germany, by August Horch under the name Horch Automobil-Werke. In 1945, the United States explodes its first experimental atomic bomb, in the desert of Alamogordo, N.M. In 1957, Marine Maj. John Glenn sets a transcontinental speed record by flying a jet from California to New York in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds. In 1964, as he accepts the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater says “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” and that “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” In 1979, Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq. In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, die when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunges into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

July 16, 1984: The recovery of the Mahoning Valley’s economy may well depend on the outcome of national contract talks between the auto workers union and General Motors Corp.

The Westinghouse Electric Corp. will suspend operations at its medium-power transformer plant in Sharon for six months beginning in January 1985 and completely close its smaller transformer operation in Greenville.

Developers Richard Blackwell and William Andrews say they have faced one roadblock after another in their efforts to restore the Paramount theater in downtown Youngstown and may have to abandon their plan to restore the oldest theater in Northeast Ohio.

July 16, 1969: Some Republicans are touting 3rsd Ward Councilman Emanuel N. Catsoules as the GOP hope for Michael J. Kirwan’s 19th Congressional District seat should Probate Judge Charles P. Henderson decline to run.

The Struthers Board of Education asks Dr. Martin Essex, state school superintendent, to make “a thorough inspection of the local school system” and to decide why the system has not been able to improve.

Comedian and TV star Paul Lynde stars in “The Impossible Years” at the Kenley Players in Warren.

July 16, 1959: A nattily dressed bandit kidnaps a Niles policeman and a woman bank teller and escapes with $40,000 that was being transferred from the Niles Bank Co. to the McKinley Federal Savings & Loan less than a block away on Main Street. Patrolman Anthony Marsico and the teller, Judy Whitney, were released unharmed in Stevens Park.

Deputy Highway Director Samuel O. Linzell cuts the ribbon opening the new Lincoln Park Bridge as county officials, including Commissioners Thomas Carney, John Palermo and Edward Gilronan looked on with approval.

July 16, 1934: Youngstown Police Chief Leroy Goodwin appoints 13 detectives under new civil service regulations. Four cadet firemen are also appointed.

Mahoning County relief officials prepare to lay off 1,820 relief workers, cutting the total RWD force from 3,081 to 1,261 for the remainder of July.

Two places where beer is sold, one at 1733 Midlothian Blvd. and the other on Market Street opposite South High School, draw protests during Sunday services at Brownlee Woods U.P. Church and South U.P. Church.