Today in history

Today is Sunday, July 19, the 200th day of 2009. There are 165 days left in the year. On this date in 1989, 111 people are killed when a United Air Lines DC-10 crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 185 other people survive.

In 1848, a pioneer women’s rights convention convenes in Seneca Falls, N.Y. In 1943, Allied air forces raid Rome during World War II. In 1944, the Democratic National Convention convenes in Chicago with the renomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a foregone certainty. In 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, go into orbit around the moon. In 1979, the Nicaraguan capital of Managua falls to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza had fled the country. In 1984, U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York wins the Democratic nomination for vice president by acclamation at the party’s convention in San Francisco. In 1993, President Bill Clinton announces a policy allowing homosexuals to serve in the military under a compromise dubbed “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue.”

July 19, 1984: Although Walter Mondale held out an olive branch to supporters of Gary Hart after winning the Democratic nomination for president, some of Ohio’s 17th District delegates to the convention aren’t ready to climb on the bandwagon. Hart delegate Stuart Banks says “He must convince me he’s just not a tool of laborites.”

Brig. Gen. Robert Lynn, a New Brighton, Pa., native and graduate of Youngstown State University, is promoted to major general. He is the first YSU ROTC graduate to become a two-star general in the Army.

July 19, 1969: An arsonist’s fire damages the East Side home of Atty. Don L. Hanni Jr., former municipal judge and a defense attorney,. The loss is estimated at $12,000.

Youngstown’s night curfew is lifted for all but youths, and National Guard troops are preparing to leave the city after order has been restored in sections of the city where rioters ran amok.

Dr. Dorsey Whittington, 70, retired concert pianist, composer and conductor, dies in Sarasota, Fla. Many Youngstown area residents studied under Dr. Whittington at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Mich.

July 19, 1959: Pennsylvania state police say the illegal numbers racket is flourishing behind the gates of plants, where policing is difficult. “Bug” play in Lawrence County is estimated at $1.5 million a year.

There’s a building boom at Youngstown area colleges, where more than $13 million has been spent on new buildings.

July 19, 1934: Babe Ruth suffers an injury that threatens to end his career during a game between the Yankees and Indians in Cleveland. Ruth’s leg is struck by a sizzling ground ball off the bat of Lou Gehrig as Ruth was running from first to second base.

Former Ohio Gov. A. Vic Donahey, campaigning at the Hotel Ohio for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator, reiterates his stand in full support of the New Deal and the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The dog races at the Canfield fairgrounds observe “Hospital Night,” with pretty nurses in uniforms accompanying grooms to the starting line and proceeds contributed to St. Elizabeth and the Youngstown Hospital. A crowd of 6,500 attend, and the hospitals receive $2,580.