Today is Tuesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2005. There are 284 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2005. There are 284 days left in the year. On this date in 1765, Britain enacts the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies. (The Act is repealed the following year.)
In 1820, U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur is killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington, D.C. In 1882, Congress outlaws polygamy. In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere show their first movie to an invited audience in Paris. In 1933, during Prohibition, President Franklin Roosevelt signs a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal. In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state goes into operation. In 1945, the Arab League is formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt. In 1946, the British mandate in Transjordan comes to an end. In 1972, Congress sends the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. (It falls three states short of the 38 needed for approval.)
March 22, 1980: Almost before the ink had dried on U.S. Judge Thomas D. Lambros' order affirming U.S. Steel's right to close two mills in Youngstown, the corporation begins the shutdown process at the Ohio Works and McDonald Mills. The judge acknowledged that his ruling could "sound the death knell" of the steel industry in the Mahoning Valley, but said the law was clear.
At the first hearing on a "piggyback" sales tax being considered by Mahoning County commissioners, many of the speakers favoring the measure were either public officials or employees.
High winds in New York City cause the giant twin towers of the World Trade Center to sway so widely that an automatic shut off trapped about 60 people in high speed express elevators for a short time.
March 22, 1965: Murray M. Cochrane, personnel director of the Chevrolet car assembly plant in Los Angeles, is named personnel director of the assembly plant being constructed in Lordstown. The appointment is made by Daniel C. Forshee, plant manager.
The Boardman Spartans victory streak is ended by a Cinderella team from Akron Central, which wins a Class AA semifinal game, 62-53, before 6,700 fans at Kent Memorial Field House.
Britain's wartime foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, contends that Franklin D. Roosevelt was "vague and loose and ineffective" in his planning for the postwar situation. Eden blames Roosevelt for most of the Communist-related problems since 1945.
March 22, 1955: Tornadoes and high winds rage through the Youngstown area, leaving a trail of damage from Ravenna to Poland. Hardest hit in Poland was the Duncan Drive area. Damage at the Ravenna Arsenal was estimated at $300,000.
William H. Ramage, president of Valley Mould & amp; Iron Co., is named chairman of the Youngstown College Board of Trustees, succeeding James L. Wick Jr., retired Youngstown industrialist who resigned after serving as chairman since the board was formed in 1931. Fred B. King Jr., president of King Funeral Home, is the board's new member.
Advertisement: Nash wins the 1955 Mobilgas Economy Run. The Nash Ambassador wins the big-car class with an average of 25.18 miles a gallon; the Rambler wins the low-price field with 27.47 miles to the gallon, six miles a gallon better than its competition.
March 22, 1930: A New Castle, Pa., jury finds Irene Shrader guilty of murder in the death of a state patrolman, with no recommendation for mercy, meaning that she faces the death penalty. She would be the first woman to die in Pennsylvania's electric chair.
U.S. Narcotics agents investigating illicit drug trade say more narcotics have been given out by prescription to drug addicts in Youngstown than in Cleveland over the last year. Agents are cracking down and one Youngstown druggist has been arrested.
The Carpathian Glee Club of St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church is organized and is planning to present a program of Easter music.