Years Agp

Today is Saturday, Aug. 27, the 239th day of 2011. There are 126 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: The Battle of Long Island begins during the Revolutionary War as British troops attack American forces, who end up being forced to retreat two days later.

1859: Edwin L. Drake drills the first successful oil well in the United States, at Titusville, Pa.

1883: The island volcano Krakatoa blows up; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait claim some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.

1908: Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, is born near Stonewall, Texas.

1928: The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

1939: The first turbojet-powered aircraft, the Heinkel He 178, goes on its first full-fledged test flight over Germany.

1949: A violent white mob prevents an outdoor concert headlined by Paul Robeson from taking place near Peekskill, N.Y. (The concert is held eight days later.)

1962: The United States launches the Mariner 2 space probe, which flies past Venus in December 1962.

1979: British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, are killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

1989: The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket is launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. — a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite, the Marcopolo 1.

VINDICATORFILES

1986: Wing walker Johnny Kazian stands atop the wing of a 1940 biplane that flew over Youngstown State University to promote the Labor Day weekend Cleveland Air Show.

Dennis Kucinich says he is dropping out of the Ohio gubernatorial race and will work for the re-election of Gov. Richard F. Celeste.

Two Conrail trains collide in Struthers injuring five Pennsylvania crewmen and blocking traffic in the center of the city for nearly three hours.

1971: Almost 300 parochial students have registered for Youngstown public junior and senior high school, which creates the potential for some overcrowding, especially at Wilson High School.

The Rev. Leo Dobosiewicz, pastor of St. Joseph the Provider Church, talks a troubled parishioner down from the roof of his Sixth Street home in Campbell, but is then threatened with arrest by police over their demand that the man be taken to jail.

The Mahoning Valley Council of Governments adopts a statement committing area communities to improving the quality of the Mahoning River.

Youngstown Firemen Lamer E. Rhinehart and Frank G. Zamary are promoted to the rank of engineer.

1961: Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Wash., calls for federal laws to jail local officials who connive with or refuse to prosecute interstate crime syndicates.

Youngstown’s 348th Engineers Pipeline Co. of the Army Reserves in Youngstown will report to Fort Bragg, N.C., as part of the national call-up of 76,500 reservists and national guardsmen.

Niles police arrest three men and a 17-year-old boy after they are caught removing scrap metal from the Republic Steel Corp. plant.

Joseph Beraducci, 604 Albert St., a Youngstown sports figure and cashier in the city Water Department, is elected to the board of trustees of the Sons of Italy of America and Canada during a convention in Washington, D.C.

1936: During a speech in Buffalo, Kansas Gov. Alf Landon denounces New Deal taxes as “cockeyed” attempts to “soak the rich.”

Judge Erskine Maiden Jr. lifts an injunction that had barred the installation of trackless trolley equipment on Woodland Avenue. A suit to bar installation was brought by some property owners.

One of the most notable gatherings of surgeons and physicians ever assembled in Youngstown will come to the city when famous doctors from coast to coast convene at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for its silver jubilee.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 Youngstowners are expected to board special trains to travel to Cleveland for “Youngstown Day” at the Great Lakes Exposition.

Mahoning County shows a larger decrease in relief costs in July than any other of the nine largest counties except Cuyahoga. Relief costs were cut from $65,000 to $52,405 in July.