Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 27, the 27th day of 2010. There are 338 days left in the year. On this date in 1880, Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

In 1901, opera composer Giuseppe Verdi dies in Milan, Italy, at age 87. In 1943, some 50 bombers strike Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II. In 1944, the Soviet Union announces the complete end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for more than two years. In 1945, Soviet troops liberate the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland. In 1951, an era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert begins as an Air Force plane drops a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flat. In 1967, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee die in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo spacecraft. More than 60 nations sign a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. In 1973, the Vietnam peace accords are signed in Paris. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan greets the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House. In 1985, the secret three-day military-satellite mission of the space shuttle Discovery ends with a smooth landing in Florida. In 2000, President Bill Clinton proposes a $350 billion tax cut, big spending increases for schools and health care and photo ID licenses for handgun purchases in his final State of the Union address.

January 27, 1985: Elmer E. Reese, Packard Electric general manger, believes the future size of the Packard Division of General Motors, indeed its survival, depends upon continued overall growth in a fiercely competitive world market.

Joel Craig of Girard receives the rank of Eagle Scout from Boy Scout Troop 47 at Girard United Methodist Church.

Former workers at GATX in Masury form the GATX Club to assist some 1,300 former employees in wading through the paperwork and phone calls that go along with keeping track of the corporate benefits they are entitled to.

January 27, 1970: A strong mayor-council form of government with at least nine ward councilman and, possibly, a councilman-at-large is recommended by the Youngstown Charter Revision Commission.

Canfield wins its fourth trophy in the National Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up annual competition.

Two South Side residents are found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning by city police in a Louis Court apartment after a neighbor reports not seeing one of the victims for two days. Dead are Mrs. Elizabeth Henry, 60, and a border, William Caudle, 51.

Youngstown will have a female mayor March 10 when Patricia Hlebovy, a 17-year-old senior at Ursuline High School, takes over for the 32nd annual YMCA Hi-Y, Tri-Hi-Y Civic Day.

January 27, 1960: Republic Steel Corp. announces plans for an expansion costing more than $2 million to produce plastic-coated pipe at its Youngstown plant.

A Hickory Township minister’s wife, Mrs. Matilda Drake, gives birth to three sons in James Memorial Hospital, New Castle, the first triplets born in Lawrence County since 1956.

Youngstown Police Chief Peter Vernosky beefs up overnight protection by establishing smaller, more efficient police cruiser districts, three new walking beats, new call boxes and personnel shifts.

Additional maintenance costs that would have to be assumed by Youngstown appear to be the key question in negotiating a new lease for the U.S. Air Force at the airport.

January 27, 1935: Merchants stand in long lines for hours at the Mahoning County Courthouse to buy tax stamps, but nonetheless, on the first day of Ohio’s 3 percent sales tax only 2,760 of the estimated 6,000 merchants have bought the stamps, leaving the rest to do legal business.

Ticket sales for the Youngstown Symphony series double in a week, to 800 and the Junior Chamber of Commerce is confident that its efforts will result in a full house on opening night.

Gov. Davey suspends Ohio‘s veteran prison warden, Preston E. Thomas, and evicts Thomas and his family from their prison home.

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