Years Ago

Today is Monday, July 27, the 208th day of 2009. There are 157 days left in the year. On this date in 1909, during the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, Orville Wright flies himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Va., for one hour and 12 minutes.

In 1794, French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre is overthrown and placed under arrest; he is executed the following day. In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finishes laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks of use). In 1919, race-related rioting erupts in Chicago; the violence, which claimed the lives of 23 blacks and 15 whites, lasts until Aug. 3. In 1953, the Korean War armistice is signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting. In 1960, Vice President Richard M. Nixon is nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Chicago. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of urban rioting, the same day black militant H. Rap Brown says in Washington that violence is “as American as cherry pie.” In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee votes 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case. In 1996, terror strikes the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111.

July 27, 1984: Hubbard City Council agrees to a proposed settlement by which a former clerk in the utilities billing office will repay $200,000 allegedly embezzled between 1978 and 1982.

Youngstown State University will be the most affordable state university in Ohio, a survey shows. The tuition for a quarter will be $445, compared to $547 a quarter at Ohio State University, which, although it is the largest university, is the fifth lowest in tuition. Miami University is the highest at $1,192 a quarter.

July 27, 1969: The Doctors’ Division in St. Elizabeth Hospital’s drive for $1.75 million reports it has $445,000, or 89 percent of its $500,000 quota.

The first store in a new chain of gift shops, Miscellaneous Inc., opens in the Eastwood Mall.

An American flag of wood inlay made by Roy W. Shodd, a retired carpenter who excels in marquetry, is presented to the Butler Institute of American Art to commemorate the trip by U.S. astronauts to the moon.

July 27, 1959: Ted Crawford, 29, of Petersburg is killed when his two-seat biplane crashes in a field near Kerner Airport at Petersburg during a test flight.

Lack of patronage results in a cutback in downtown Youngstown bus loop service, says City Traction Commissioner James W. Cannon.

A dozen gleaming white trash barrels are placed at downtown locations by the city street department. The barrels replace those that were originally put around town to advertise downtown theaters, which have deteriorated.

July 27, 1934: Representatives of Republic Steel Corp. and the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers are working out settlement of their dispute under the eye of the national steel board.

Carnegie Steel Co. Is seeking bids for a 42-inch wide strip mill in McDonald.

Nearly 1,000 old residents of Haselton meet for their fourth annual reunion in Lincoln Park.