Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 17, the 321st day of 2009. There are 44 days left in the year. On this date in 1800, Congress holds its first session in Washington in the partially completed Capitol building.

In 1558, Elizabeth I accedes to the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary. In 1869, the Suez Canal opens in Egypt. In 1934, Lyndon Baines Johnson marries Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as Lady Bird, in San Antonio. In 1962, Washington’s Dulles International Airport is dedicated by President John F. Kennedy. In 1969, the first round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union opens in Helsinki, Finland. In 1970, the Soviet Union lands an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. In 1973, President Richard Nixon tells Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, Fla.: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.” In 1979, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 black and/or female American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In 1987, a federal jury in Denver convicts two neo-Nazis and acquits two others of civil rights violations in the 1984 slaying of radio talk show host Alan Berg. In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, are killed when militants open fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers are killed by police.

November 17, 1984: James A. Traficant Jr.’s victory in the 17th District congressional race is made possible by disenchanted Democratic voters in Mahoning County who had previously supported incumbent Republican Lyle Williams, an analysis of election results shows.

Youngstown officials hope a Republican-controlled Ohio Senate won’t spell doom for a convocation center in the city that is under study by a 50-member community-university panel.

The use of ATM machines has grown in the Youngstown area over two years from a dozen machines with 10,000 customers in 1982 to more than 100 with 125,000 people holding the cards that operate them.

November 17, 1969: Two men are arrested on suspicion of burglary minutes after a two-alarm fire, fed by 100 drums of varnish, sweeps through the two-story office building of the Mahoning Paint Co. at 653 Jones St.

Twins Dan and David Jochman, students at Chaney High School, are awarded their Eagle Scout rank.

The Warren Education Association announces that 500 city teachers plan to take “special leave” to dramatize the crisis facing education, especially education in Warren after voters defeated an operating levy. Dr. David L. Moberly, superintendent, says he will seek a court order to force the teachers back if they walk out.

November 17, 1959: Rayen and South High School stadiums will be thoroughly surveyed for an improvement program, members of the Youngstown Board of Education decide.

Fourteen magazines and four books banned from Mahoning County newsstands under an injunction issued at the request of Prosecutor Thomas A. Beil are being recalled by the Mahoning Valley Distributing Agency.

The steel strike has cost the Mahoning County Welfare Department $910,358 and is expected to leave the agency about $800,000 in the red at the end of the year.

November 17, 1934: Edwin R. Jones Jr., 17-year-old Rayen School graduate, is a snare drummer in the crack Ohio State University band. The 150-member band plays at OSU football games.

Trustees of the Youngstown Hospital Association say the city hospital is $97,000 in debt and needs an infusion of $50,000 to keep its doors open. Cities and townships served by the hospital owe more than $100,000 for indigent care.

Four dilapidated houses, one in the East, West, North and South side of Youngstown will be renovated to promote the federal housing program.