Today in history

Today is Sunday, June 21, the 172nd day of 2009. There are 193 days left in the year. This is Father’s Day. Summer arrives at 1:45 a.m. EDT.

On this date in 1788, the U.S. Constitution goes into effect as New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it. In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick receives a patent for his reaping machine. In 1932, heavyweight Max Schmeling loses a title fight rematch in New York by decision to Jack Sharkey, prompting Schmeling’s manager, Joe Jacobs, to exclaim: “We was robbed!” In 1948, the Republican national convention opens in Philadelphia. (The delegates end up choosing Thomas E. Dewey to be their presidential nominee.) In 1963, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII; the new pope takes the name Paul VI. In 1964, civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney disappear in Philadelphia, Miss.; their bodies are found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. In 1973, the Supreme Court, in Miller v. California, rules that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards. In 1982, a jury in Washington finds John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan and three other men. In 1985, scientists announce that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil are those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court rules that burning the American flag as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment. In 1990, an estimated 50,000 Iranians are killed by an earthquake.

June 21, 1984: Laura Liu, an Austintown Fitch High School valedictorian, is named first runner-up in America’s 1984 Junior Miss competition in Mobile, Ala.

A Warren native, Ronald Parise, is named by NASA to fly on at least two shuttle missions in 1986 and 1987. The graduate of Warren Western Reserve High School will be one of three payload specialists on the flights.

A military construction bill that passed through the House Appropriations Committee includes $513,000 for a firefighting school at the Youngstown Reserve Air Base at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

June 21, 1969: Six houses are evacuated and traffic is detoured for 10 hours after a gasoline truck overturns in Canfield, dumping 3,300 gallons of gas into storm sewers in front of Canfield City Hall at 104 Lisbon St. Thousands of gallons of water and foam were used to dilute the gasoline and reduce dangerous fumes.

The Youngstown Transit Co. tells the Mahoning Valley Regional Mass Transit Authority that it needs a subsidy or tax relief totaling $100,000 if it is to continue operating.

Wean United Inc. will establish a subsidiary company in Sydney, Australia, to market product lines of all Wean United companies, says R.J. Wean Jr., president and chief executive officer. Louis M. Repassy will be the managing director of the new firm.

June 21, 1959: Despite a sharp upturn in steel production in the spring, nearly 5,000 who live within driving distance of Youngstown are still looking for work, the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation reports.

Jerome Hizney, 37, of Poland, father of seven children, is killed when his car slipped from a jack and crushed him while he was changing a tailpipe in his driveway.

R. Thornton Beeghly, vice president of Metal Carbides Corp., will serve as co-chairman for the Youngstown area community Chest campaign.

Retiring Youngstown Patrolman Frank Parker is hoping someone will return the wallet inscribed to him and presented by the men of his turn, which he apparently lost on the North-Lincoln bus. The 80-year-old policeman is retiring July 1 and the wallet and $300 were a parting gift.

June 21, 1934: Councilman Wesley Dodson, a former opponent of a new city jail, says he is now convinced the jail is an unsanitary fire trap and must be replaced.

John J. Farrell, newly named Youngstown postmaster, says that although he does not believe any post office rule would require him to resign as chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, he would do so if a “satisfactory” replacement comes forward.

Wesley W. Crubaugh, whose farm near Lisbon marks the northernmost point of the Civil War invasion of Morgan’s Raiders, finds a tortoise on his farm still bearing the inscription “WWC 1890” that he carved into it as a boy 44 years earlier. He scratched on a new date and set it free again.

Thousands of Masons and their families gather at Idora Park to attend the annual Masonic picnic.