Today in history

Today is Wednesday, June 3, the 154th day of 2009. There are 211 days left in the year. On this date in 1808, Jefferson Davis — the first and only president of the Confederate States of America — is born in Christian County, Ky.

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company receives its charter for a trade monopoly in parts of the Americas and Africa. In 1888, the poem “Casey at the Bat,” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is first published, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. In 1935, the French liner Normandie sets a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after crossing the Atlantic in just four days. In 1937, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, marries Wallis Warfield Simpson in Monts, France. In 1948, the 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California is dedicated. In 1963, Pope John XXIII dies at age 81; he is succeeded by Pope Paul VI.

June 3, 1984: Youngstown Municipal Airport is finally being developed into a regional facility, an effort aimed at aiding areawide economic development.

A Cleveland area teenager, Robert Gardella Jr., 17, of Garfield Heights, is killed when he is struck by a passing boat while being pulled on an innertube behind another boat in Berlin Reservoir.

Leetonia High School’s Class A state championship track team arrives home to a greeting of blaring fire sirens and the school band playing. Coach Glen Windram presents the trophy to Superintendent George Trombidas, who congratulates the team for being the first in the school’s history to win a state track championship.

June 3, 1969: Near-disaster procedures are put into operation at South Side Hospital when two fatalities and 14 other victims from a series of traffic accidents arrive within hours at the emergency room.

Revamping of Youngstown’s Central Square is postponed until fall to allow private developers to complete plans for their building programs.

Radio transmission in the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department and telephone service to some 600 homes in the city are disrupted after a fast-moving thunderstorm brings more than a half inch of rain. Downtown temperatures dropped 25 degrees in less than two hours.

June 3, 1959: “Society must find a way to give our colleges the support they need to prepare their students for independent, responsible citizens,” Dr. John C. Warner, president of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, tells Youngstown University’s graduating class. Dr. Warner and Charles G. Watson, chairman of the board of Youngstown Welding and Engineering Co., receive honorary doctorate degrees.

Youngstown faces a possible strike by drivers for the Youngstown Transit Co. after they reject an offer that would have increased wages by 18 cents over two years, to $2.26. They had sought 40 cents an hour.

Glenn H. Hartman, 31, Vindicator church editor for six years, dies in the Cleveland Clinic Hospital of a brain tumor. He had battled cancer for four years, but was well enough to be one of the speakers at the dedication in April of the Old Rugged Cross in Lake Park Cemetery.

June 3, 1934: Park Commissioner Lionel Evans says Youngstown should have a forestry division that would properly tend to the trees on city land. He says the city has been fortunate so far to avoid any serious mortality from pests or disease to the city’s trees and shrubs.

The spread of infantile paralysis prompts the Los Angeles board of education to ban all festivals, shows, carnivals play days and track meets at city schools. Three swimming pools are closed by the playground commission.

Transcripts of closed door hearings held by congressional committees show that the prospects for funding of a Beaver-Mahoning canal projects are slim.