Today is Saturday, March 18, the 77th day of 2006. There are 288 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, March 18, the 77th day of 2006. There are 288 days left in the year. On this date in 1965, the first spacewalk takes place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov leaves his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.
In 1766, Britain repeals the Stamp Act. In 1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi is sentenced in India to six years' imprisonment for civil disobedience. (He is released after serving two years.) In 1931, Schick Inc. markets the first electric razor. In 1937, more than 400 people, mostly children, are killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas. In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agrees to join Germany's war against France and Britain.
March 18, 1981: President Reagan's government spending cuts may help lift the local home building industry out of its slump, says the associate chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, speaking in Youngstown.
Mahoning County Engineer Michael Fitas says two bridges, Market Street and Powers Way, are scheduled for replacement in 1980, but there may not be enough money to do both jobs.
Police estimate some 1,500 people line Federal Plaza for a spirited, long and cold St. Patrick's Day parade. The temperature was 27 degrees and falling when the parade began at 5 p.m. Among the marchers were elephants from the Aut Mori Grotto Circus.
March 18, 1966: State investigators are working their way through the ruins of the Rozzi Fireworks Co. on Edinburg-Pulaski Road to determine the cause of a series of blasts that rocks the operation and killed Vincenzo J. Rozzi, 71.
Chest X-rays are given to 25 members of the Austintown Fitch High School basketball team and 250 other students are given the Heaf test by the Mahoning County Board of Health after tuberculosis was found in an 18-year-old star basketball player.
A number of Mahoning County high school students who may have been exposed to a fatal case of meningitis at a Lake Milton dance have been treated to stop the disease and others are being urged to get treatment. A 16-year-old Portage County boy who attended the American Legion Post dance died in Warren General Hospital.
March 18, 1956: Girard City Council unanimously passes a resolution authorizing Safety Service Director Thomas R. Rees Jr. to sign a contract under which Girard will buy its water supply from Niles.
Columbiana County's prosecutor, James L. MacDonald, takes over investigation of East Liverpool's police department "burglary scandal" on the recommendation of state officials.
Congressman Oliver P. Bolton of the 11th District accepts chairmanship of the statewide campaign of C. William O'Neill for governor.
March 18, 1931: Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judges reject a plan by Prosecutor Ray L. Thomas to recall the January grand jury to investigate accusation of improper payments by utility companies to public officials. The judges say a special prosecutor and special grand jury should be named.
Police believe Mary Stiles was run down by a hit-skip driver in Belmont Ave., near Gypsy Lane. A Michigan couple with whom she had spent time at a Trumbull County beer joint told police she decided to walk home and left by herself.
Three bandits in broad daylight invade the Youngstown Jewish Center at Elm Street and Lincoln Ave., club the janitor, Nick Virastick, over the head, and take $5 from him.