Thursday, March 19, 2009
Today is Thursday, March 19, the 78th day of 2009. There are 287 days left in the year. On this date in 1979, the U.S. House of Representatives begins televising its day-to-day business.
In 1859, the opera “Faust” by Charles Gounod premieres in Paris.In 1917, the Supreme Court, in Wilson v. New, upholds the eight-hour work day for railroad workers. In 1918, Congress approves daylight saving time. In 1920, the Senate rejects, for a second time, the Treaty of Versailles by 49 to 35, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval. In 1931, Nevada Gov. Fred B. Balzar signs a measure legalizing casino gambling. In 1945, during World War II, 724 people are killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacks the carrier USS Franklin off Japan; the ship, however, is saved. Adolf Hitler issues his so-called “Nero Decree,” ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands. In 1976, Buckingham Palace announces the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.
March 19, 1984: Youngstown Police Sgt. Buddy Taylor is found shot to death in his car in a secluded area of the South Side.
About 600 area residents attend a hearing by the U.S. House Select Committee on Aging at the Multipurpose Senior Center on Fifth Avenue to discuss the ways in which the Social Security Administration determines who receives disability benefits.
A top official of the General Services Administration in Washington insists that the federal courthouse project proposed for downtown Youngstown is not dead.
March 19, 1969: Mahoning County will receive $134,000 a year for the next three years to conduct a new interagency project for the disadvantaged handicapped under the Ohio Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Legislation pending in Congress aimed at halting or slowing the flood of industrial mergers, including that of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and Lykes Corp., draws fire from U.S. Sen. Russell Long, D-La., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Developers Morris Simon and Daniel Oljaca announce plans for a 300-unit apartment complex development to be completed by 1972 at a cost of $4.2 million near Liberty Memorial Park.
March 19, 1959: A proposal is under study to construct a multi-million-dollar conveyor belt system to carry ore from the lake front to the city’s steel and iron making plants.
Police are searching for thieves who entered the old Holly Beverage Co. bottling plant on Franklin Avenue and took 170,000 soft drink bottles valued at $10,500. The burglars are believed to have smashed the bottles and sold them for white glass. Police are checking with junk dealers.
A freight train plows into a station wagon carrying eight Girl Scouts and two mothers at an unguarded crossing near Xenia, killing all.
March 19, 1934: Saying that City Council went too far in cutting manpower, especially in the Fire Department, which is already understaffed, Youngstown Mayor Mark Moore vetoes the city salary ordinance.
Beaver County officials are expressing unanticipated opposition to the Beaver-Mahoning waterway. Representatives of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. in Pittsburgh are suspected of being behind the effort to kill the canal.
Carl Bixler, former Youngstown city patrolman convicted of robbery, is sentenced to the Ohio State Penitentiary for 10 to 25 years.