Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Oct. 1, the 274th day of 2009. There are 91 days left in the year. On this date in 1949, Mao Zedong proclaims the People’s Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing.

In 1800, Spain cedes Louisiana to France in a secret treaty. In 1908, Henry Ford introduces his Model T automobile to the market. In 1936, Gen. Francisco Franco is proclaimed the head of an insurgent Spanish state. In 1939, Winston Churchill, recently appointed First Lord of the Admiralty by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, describes Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” during a radio address on the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

October 1, 1984: An Israeli newspaper reports that Iran, Syria and Libya secretly direct the Islamic Jihad terror organization that claimed responsibility for the recent suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut. Four attacks have killed 387 people, including 260 Americans.

A woman and seven children are killed in a house fire in Meadville, including three children who were standing on a porch roof when the roof collapsed into the inferno. Two adults escaped, including one who jumped from the porch roof before it collapsed.

Edward P. Nemeth, Democratic candidate for Mahoning County sheriff, pledges to remove “petty politics and favoritism” from the department.

October 1, 1969: There may be a shortage of football pool betting slips in the Youngstown area after Pennsylvania State Police raid a Pittsburgh area print shop that allegedly supplied slips for western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.

Charles Miller Jr., 21, of Bonnie Brae NE is killed in a car-train collision at the Larchmont crossing of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad in Warren.

A cooperative teaching project involving 19 4th grade pupils, 17 5th grade pupils and their two teachers is launched at Negley School, says East Palestine Supt. Joseph J. Agular.

October 1, 1959: In a surprise move, Mayor Frank X. Kryzan appoints Youngstown patrolman Donald F. Glass airport manager, bypassing Robert F. Bakalik, a college graduate in airport management who had a perfect civil service score and has held the job since February. Glass placed third on the test.

Third Ward Councilman McCullough Williams Jr. asks for legislation aimed at ending the police towing monopoly enjoyed by Passarelli Brother Wrecking Service.

Rain attributed to Hurricane Gracie dumps two to three inches on the Mahoning Valley, bringing precipitation records for September, which had been historically low, near the months’s average.

October 1, 1934: About 6,000 families on relief in Mahoning County will receive some 25,000 pounds of fresh beef, the first being distributed in the area from weekly shipments of cattle from drought areas in the West.

The Youngstown Players present the first full rehearsal of “Hay Fever,” a play being directed by Hubbard Kirkpatrick.

Far-reaching changes in Ohio’s banking laws are recommended by the state banking advisory board in a report given to Gov. George White. Among members of the committee is George C. Brainard of Youngstown.