OPINION	Vindy Basic

Today is Monday, June 21, the 173rd day of 2004. There are 193 days left in the year. On this date in 1964, civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney disappear in Philadelphia, Miss.; their bodies are found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Seven Ku Klux Klansmen are later convicted of federal civil rights violations in the deaths and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years; none serves more than six years.)

In 1788, the United States Constitution goes into effect as New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it. In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick receives a patent for his reaping machine. In 1932, heavyweight Max Schmeling loses a title fight by decision to Jack Sharkey, prompting Schmeling's manager, Joe Jacobs, to exclaim: "We was robbed!" In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers on Okinawa find the body of the Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, who had committed suicide. In 1963, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII; the new pope takes the name Paul VI. In 1973, the Supreme Court rules that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards. In 1977, Menachem Begin becomes Israel's sixth prime minister. In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C., finds John Hinckley Jr. innocent by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Reagan and three other men. In 1985, scientists announce that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil are those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. In 1989, the Supreme Court rules that burning the American flag as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment.

June 21, 1979: A federal grant of $281,000 will pay to fill six open
mineshafts in Trumbull County. The first to be filled is at the Curtis Elementary School playground in Brookfield.

A man kidnaps two young couples in the Uptown district, near where a Campbell woman was abducted and slain three weeks ago. One of the women was raped.

Youngstown City Council withholds for at least a week approval of a $5 million apartment complex in downtown. Council delayed action after Don L. Hanni Jr., Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, told several of them that a building for the elderly and handicapped downtown was "stupid" and "a mistake."

June 21, 1964: Mill Creek Park's sailing class is a success in its fourth year. Twelve students attend two hour sessions twice a week for four weeks for classroom lessons and practical experience on Lake Newport in the park's three Vixen class sailboats.

General Motors' new Lordstown plant will assemble standard-size Chevrolets, sporty Chevelles, standard Pontiacs and small Tempests on a single production line.

The three bronze statues depicting justice, strength-authority and law atop the Mahoning County Courthouse are getting a cleaning and repairs after many years of exposure to the elements. The figures, built in sections, were mounted shortly after the courthouse was constructed in 1910.

June 21, 1954: The Amoco service station at 3605 Mahoning Ave. is demolished and its owner seriously injured in an explosion that rocked the West Side. Sparks from an electric motor apparently ignited gasoline fumes in the building. Passers-by and employees at nearby Swedlow Plastics Co. pulled Elmer Gerlach from the burning rubble.

Youngstown Patrolman Thomas Howe prevents a 25-year-old South Side man from jumping from the Market Street bridge by a ruse. "If you're going to jump, you might as well leave that sports coat for me," Howe told the man. As the man reached to give Howe the coat, the policeman grabbed him and pulled him to safety.

An investigation by Buell Gallagher, president of City College of New York, finds that some top college basketball players were admitted to the college with fraudulent high school transcripts and that high school coaches were paid as much as $250 for their assistance in recruiting star prospects. Coach Nat Holman resigned about the time Gallagher assigned a former Army intelligence operator to do the investigation.

June 21, 1929: The Central Store Co., E. Federal Street, Youngstown, purchases the Neal Co. at 238-242 W. Federal St. F.W. Moury, former manager of the Central Store, is named manager of Neal Co.

Dr. James H. Snook, 49, Ohio State University professor, admits killing co-ed Theora Hix, 25. He said he killed her in his car, striking her with a hammer and then cutting her throat with a penknife, after the two argued over his plans to take a weekend trip with his wife and daughter.

Harry Elliot, a laborer for Heller Bros. Co., dies after being struck on the head with a plank that fell from the 17th floor of the Central Bank Building, which is under construction.