21 WFMJ archives  / July 11, 1954 | Seventy years ago, Mahoning County had about 14,000 acres of wheat nearly ready to harvest, including this field at the Russell McKay farm on Boardman-Poland Road. The county’s total crop was estimated to produce 250,000 bushels of grain.

July 11


1999: While testifying in his own defense during his federal trial in Cleveland, Sheriff Phil Chance admits that he lied to the press and others about meeting with mob boss Lenny Strollo and failed to report to the IRS income he made working private security for at least four years.

 
A fire destroyed several businesses in Town One Square in the center of Poland, causing damage estimated at $1 million. At least 75 firefighters from eight departments responded to the blaze. 

Henry Bazzichi, 85, of Ellwood City, Pa., has given nine gallons of blood to the Red Cross since the first blood drawing was held in Lawrence County 38 years ago. 


1984: D. Leonard Wise, president of LTV Steel Corp.'s flat-rolled products division, says the company will stabilize and might even expand some of its Mahoning Valley operations but won't pursue a Republic Steel plan to increase capacity in Warren.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste announced five universities will house centers for technological innovation, but Youngstown State University will not be one of them.  

The Youngstown Board of Education approves Superintendent Emanuel Catsoules' recommendation of five new principals: Robert Amatore, Robert Mansfield, Carole Hooks, Edward Rakocy, and Geraldine Banks. 


1974: An honor guard of firemen and policemen line the walk at Grandview Cemetery in Salem for the funeral of Mayor T. Emerson Smith, who died at 71 of an aneurysm. 

Barbara Bochert, 17, of Westport Drive, Youngstown, is pictured with Henry, the baby sparrow she found featherless and with an injured wing on the sidewalk near Borden's Dairy. She nursed him back to health and released him after four weeks. 

Australian union members refuse to refuel the private jet of Frank Sinatra after Sinatra called reporters "hookers" and "parasites" during a concert in Melbourne.  His bodyguards were accused of roughing up reporters, prompting trade unions to demand an apology. 
 
1949: Gov. Frank J. Lausche warns the Jungle Inn and other dives where patrons drink and gamble on Sundays that the state will mount an attack using every power it possesses. 

Henry Barton, 55, of Penn Avenue, is killed when he is buried under tons of dirt and bricks when a sewer excavation at the Campbell Yards of the New York Central collapses. 

Edward Cardinal Mooney, archbishop of Detroit and a Youngstown native, sails from New York to visit Pope Pius XII.