Today in history

June 25, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Thursday, June 25, the 176th day of 2009. There are 189 days left in the year. On this date in 1950, war breaks out in Korea as forces from the communist North invade the South.

In 1788, Virginia ratifies the U.S. Constitution. In 1868, Congress passes an Omnibus Act allowing for the readmission of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to the Union. In 1876, Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. In 1906, architect Stanford White is shot to death atop New York’s Madison Square Garden, which he had designed, by millionaire Harry K. Thaw, the jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit. (Thaw is acquitted of murder by reason of insanity.) In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is enacted. In 1942, some 1,000 British Royal Air Force bombers raid Bremen, Germany, during World War II. In 1959, spree killer Charles Starkweather, 20, is put to death in Nebraska’s electric chair. Eamon de Valera is inaugurated as president of Ireland. In 1962, the Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, rules that recital of a state-sponsored prayer in New York State public schools is unconstitutional. In 1973, former White House Counsel John W. Dean begins testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee. In 1996, a truck bomb kills 19 Americans and injures hundreds at a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia. In 1999, during a news conference, President Bill Clinton says the people of Serbia had to “get out of denial” about the atrocities blamed on Slobodan Milosevic and decide if he was fit to remain president of Yugoslavia. The San Antonio Spurs win their first title as they defeat the New York Knicks 78-77 in Game 5 of the NBA finals.

June 25, 1984: Americans give mixed ratings to public schools across the country, but are more likely to approve of the schools in their own neighborhood, according to a new Associated Press poll.

It is not unusual for American citizens to be held in Saudi Arabia against their will until contractual disputes are resolved, a U.S. State Department official says. Three Youngstown men are being held in a dispute between a Saudi prince and Bucheit International of Youngstown.

Leading banks increase the prime rate at 13 percent, the highest level since October 1982 and the fourth jump in four months.

June 25, 1969: Two New Middletown brothers drown, apparently when one fell into a limestone quarry pond near Bessemer, Pa., while fishing and the other tried to rescue him. Dead are Richard G. Lyda, 17, and Edward J. Lyda Jr.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Youth Corps, a division of the federal antipoverty program, is advised by the Cleveland office that cuts of up to 50 percent will have to be made in the local program.

Four possible plans for reorganization of public schools in northeast Youngstown are presented at a meeting of interested citizens at North High School. Two of the plans would require busing students from Science Hill Elementary to four other schools.

June 25, 1959: A 17-year-old Warren youth is shot in the back when he was caught in a hail of bullets during a teen gang fight at a record hop at the Holy Trinity Church Pavilion in Coitsville.

Ronald D. Carabbia, 30, of Struthers, sought for a $20,000 Warren department store robbery and a Warren liquor store burglary, is arrested in Cicero, Ill., near Chicago.

Ashtabula Harbor, the gateway for the “Ruhr of America” to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, promises to become one of the world’s important seaports, says Rep. Robert Cook during a dinner attended by 350 businessmen and industrialists from Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

Golden Age Beverage Corp. and Golden Age Youngstown have been acquired by the American Beverage Corp. of New York City.

June 25, 1934: Skilled handling by Norman Wise, pilot of a big Lockheed-Vega monoplane, is credited with saving his life and that of four passengers as the motor stalled while the plane was taking off from Watson Field. The plane crashed in a field near McKelvey Lake.

State examiner David Jenkins says six people have been charged in Youngstown Municipal Court with receiving state relief payments under false pretenses, and hundreds more could be prosecuted.

During a visit to the family homestead in Hyde Park N.Y. to visit his newest grandchild, the six-week-old daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Elliot Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delights the proprietor of a hot dog stand just outside of Brewster, N.Y., by pulling in and ordering “dogs” for the presidential party, a beer for himself and water for Mrs. Roosevelt.