Friday, August 20, 2010
Today is Friday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2010. There are 133 days left in the year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On this date in:
1940: Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish Communist agent working at the behest of Josef Stalin.
1833: Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States, is born in North Bend, Ohio.
1910: A series of forest fires sweep through parts of Idaho, Montana and Washington, killing at least 85 people and burning some 3 million acres in what becomes known as the “Big Blowup.”
1920: Pioneering American radio station 8MK in Detroit (later WWJ) begins daily broadcasting.
1955: Hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
1968: The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations begin invading Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” liberalization drive.
1977: The U.S. launches Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
VINDICATOR FILES
1985: Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says Fire Station 14 on the city’s South Side will not be sold, but he makes no commitment to reopening it.
The nation’s economy, battered by a rising trade deficit, grows at a weak rate of 2 percent through the spring.
The Austintown Board of Eduction approves a $175 increase in base pay for teachers, bringing the starting rate to $15,275 a year.
1970: Land for a new $6 million Youngstown Municipal Airport terminal building will be bought by the city with $780,000 in borrowed funds.
Mayor Jack C. Hunter, his finance director Thomas J. Lavern and two members of the city Civil Service Commission are found in contempt of court and fined $500 each by Common Pleas Judge Sidney Rigelhaupt for ignoring his ruling that appointing two assistant police chiefs is illegal.
1960: Sharon Steel Corp. will consolidate all its administrative functions, including purchasing, accounting and traffic, at its Sharon general offices
The Rev. John A. Grabowski, pastor of St. Stanislaus Church since 1939 and well known for his work with displaced persons, dies of a heart attack at St. Elizabeth Hospital.
Youngstown’s Fresh Air Camp closes its season after providing summer memories for 695 boys and girls.
1935: Frank C. Walker, director of President Roosevelt’s National Emergency Council, visits Youngstown to attend the funeral of a boyhood chum, Joseph G. Mudro.
The Strouss Hirshberg store is closed on a Monday to allow 1,000 store employees and family members to attend the company picnic at Geauga Lake Park. Hundreds of the picnickers fill seven Erie Railroad coaches.
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