This day in history

Today is Tuesday, July 21, the 202nd day of 2009. There are 163 days left in the year. On this date in 1959, the NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, is christened by first lady Mamie Eisenhower at Camden, N.J.

In 1925, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ends in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (The conviction is later overturned on a technicality.) In 1944, American forces land on Guam during World War II. In 1949, the U.S. Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty. In 1961, Capt. Virgil “Gus” Grissom becomes the second American to rocket into a suborbital pattern around the Earth, flying aboard the Liberty Bell 7. In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin blast off from the moon aboard the ascent stage of the lunar module for docking with the command module.

July 21, 1984: Speaking before a crowd of 1,000 at the Star Theater in Youngstown, Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan flatly denies that he is an anti-Semite, then minutes later refers to Judaism as a “dirty religion.”

Youngstown Parks Superintendent Frank Magnelli orders nearly half the city’s parks closed because the Park and Recreation Department is running out of money.

Playing at Frank Kenley’s Theatre of the Stars in Warren, Brian Keith in the comedy “Mass Appeal.”

July 21, 1969: Youngstown police return to eight-hour shifts after civil disturbances in the city had them working 12-hour tours of duty. Meanwhile, Farrell police report burnings and lootings in their city from racial unrest.

At the Kenley Players, Vikki Carr, starring in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

July 21, 1959: Mahoning County Prosecutor Thomas A. Beil says Youngstown’s major magazine distributor has agreed to voluntarily remove 21 publications from sale that had been deemed objectionable by the Youngstown chapter of the Citizens for Decent Literature.

The novelty of the 1959 steel strike is quickly wearing off as the Youngstown district’s 50,000 idled steelworkers settle down to conducting picket lines at plant gates and wondering when the strike will be over. In the first days of the strike, workers set up small swimming pools and patio tables where they played cards, but picketing has become business as usual.

July 21, 1934: Youngstown is in the grip of a new heat wave as temperatures climb to 96 degrees and at least 10 victims of the heat are sent to hospitals. Across the nation, 150 have died, including 10 in Ohio.

Youngstown will hold a “Canal Day,” part of an effort to gather 200,000 signatures on a petition that will be presented to President Roosevelt urging his support for a Mahoning-Beaver River canal.

C.H. Elliott, manager of the Warren district of Republic Steel Corp., denies accusations that the company has refused to deal with the Amalgamated Association of Steelworkers. Republic, he said, is paying wage scales the association had sought.