Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Today is Wednesday, April 27, the 117th day of 2011. There are 248 days left in the year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On this date in:
1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.
1805: During the First Barbary War, an American-led force of Marines and mercenaries captures the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
1822: The 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, is born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
1861: President Abraham Lincoln, citing public safety concerns amid the Civil War, suspends the writ of habeas corpus in an area between Philadelphia and Washington. (Lincoln later lifts the order, but then suspends habeas corpus for the entire Union in September 1862. Habeas corpus is restored by President Andrew Johnson in December 1865.)
1865: The steamer Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 people, mostly freed Union prisoners of war.
1941: German forces occupy Athens during World War II.
1967: Expo ’67 is officially opened in Montreal.
1973: Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigns after it is revealed that he’d destroyed files removed from the safe of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.
1981: The Xerox Star computer workstation, featuring the first commercially available mouse, makes its debut.
1986: A video pirate calling himself “Captain Midnight” interrupts a movie on HBO with a printed message protesting de-scrambling fees.
VINDICATOR FILES
1986: Management and labor look back on 20 sometimes contentious years of operation at General Motors Lordstown assembly plant.
Dr. Richard Sheely, pupil personnel director, has requested that Youngstown schools strive for an overall improvement of 2 percent per year in standardized test scores.
The Strouss-Kaufmann’s warehouse will close on May 15, despite concerted efforts by union employees to keep the center open.
Two underdogs in the race for the Republican nomination of governor, Paul E. Pfeifer and Paul E. Gillmor, are in Youngstown to explain their plans to put people back to work.
1971: Youngstown Steel Door Co. plans an $8 million, three-year expansion of its Wickliffe plant in Henricks Road.
Youngstown Patrolman Billy Tanner escapes death when a man being arrested for shoplifting shoves a pistol against his stomach and fires. The bullet was deflected by Tanner’s thick belt buckle.
Mahoning County Board of Elections officials expect turnout at the May 4 primaries in Youngstown, Struthers, Poland, Canfield and Sebring to fall to 60,000, about 5,000 below that of 1969.
The sixth explosion in the Youngstown area in April damages the business offices of the Ohio Steel Wire Co. at 1640 Wilson Ave.
1961: Doreen McCleery, a Youngstown University senior from Warren, will reign as queen of the university’s 34th annual May fete.
Five county jail prisoners who attempted a jailbreak are transferred to “the tank,” where they will spend about a week in darkness.
The Mill Creek Improvement Club calls for a large turnout at City Council to protest a zone change that would allow construction of a new shopping center on Canfield Road.
The Mahoning County grand jury recommends that city police be more aggressive in shutting down liquor cheat spots.
1936: Dr. Merton S. Rice, noted minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Detroit, speaks at the opening of Youngstown’s “Be a Good Neighbor” campaign in Stambaugh Auditorium.
Youngstown wins a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, which upholds the lower interstate coal rates from Negley to Youngstown over the Youngstown & Suburban Railroad.
Nancy June Patterson, age 21/2, dies in South Side hospital a day after falling into a washtub of scalding water at the home, 542 Walter St.
Zell Hart Deming, 64, publisher of the Warren Tribune-Chronicle, dies at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, where she was attending the annual meetings for the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the Associated Press.