Today is Thursday, March 20, the 80th day of 2008. There are 286 days left in the year.

Today is Thursday, March 20, the 80th day of 2008. There are 286 days left in the year. Spring’s arrival: 1:48 a.m. Eastern time. On this date in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte returns to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.

In 1413, England’s King Henry IV dies; he is succeeded by Henry V. In 1828, poet-dramatist Henrik Ibsen is born in Skien, Norway. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” is first published in book form after being serialized. In 1908, British actor Sir Michael Redgrave is born in Bristol, England. In 1908, American broadcasting pioneer Frank Stanton, the president of CBS for 26 years, is born in Muskegon, Mich. In 1956, union workers end a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp. In 1969, John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. In 1977, voters in Paris choose former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French capital’s first mayor in more than a century. In 1988, 8-year-old DeAndra Anrig finds herself airborne when the string of her kite is snagged by an airplane flying over Shoreline Park in Mountain View, Calif. (DeAndra is lifted 10 feet off the ground and carried some 100 feet until she lets go; she was not seriously hurt.)

March 20, 1983: L Frederick Gieg Jr., president and CEO of RMI Inc. in Niles and Ashtabula, is working on a program with Kobe Steel of Japan to expand the market for titanium and to create more jobs in Ohio.

U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, R-17th, says he’ll call for a congressional investigation into Commuter Aircraft Corp. if company officials snub any potential buyers of the CAC-100 airplane.

The Jewish community of Youngstown contributes a significant body of resource material on the Holocaust to Kent State University’s Jewish studies program. Microfilm from the Terezin concentration camp archives and microfiche from Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Archives were donated by the Schermer Charitable Trust, Mahoning Lodge B’nai B’rith and the Youngstown Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.

March 20, 1968: Bishop Emmet M. Walsh of Youngstown is described as a pioneer of what became the hallmarks of Vatican II during a memorial Mass at St. Columba Cathedral.

The Downtown Kiwanis raises $4,500 for youth work during its 14th annual radio auction of WFMJ.

Angry protests are heard in City Hall when plans are revealed to construct a $1.4 million apartment complex near an upper-class Negro neighborhood off Glenwood and Park Hill avenues. Park Hill Gardens would include 100 apartments and be administered by Third Baptist Church.

March 20, 1958: Dr. Lewis S. Shenas of the Mahoning Medical Society says the price of medicine could be reduced if pharmaceutical and surgical supply manufacturers would cease spending thousands of dollars on needless samples and expensive brochures sent to physicians.

Responding to a cutback in orders, U.S. Steel Corp. will suspend operations indefinitely of its Bessemer converters at the Ohio Works, biggest in the area, affecting about 180 employees.

Finance Director Nicholas P. Bernard warns city council that current economic conditions will mean a drop in income tax revenue and he urges a tightening of the belt now

March 20, 1933: Farmers National Bank of Salem and the Farmers National Bank of Canfield are opened under the protection of the federal government.

A 17-year-old former pupil in St. Paul Orphanage in Greenville is in Mercer jail on a charge of setting a fire that destroyed the large barn at the orphanage, killing 35 head of cattle. The boy confessed when police told them they were taking him to look at the burned carcasses of the cattle. “I can’t. I love them too much. … I did it,” he told police.

Munich police say they foiled an attempt on the life of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The attack, planned by one German and two Russian Communists, was prevented through “the watchfulness of the populace and police.”

The Mahoning Valleys win a sensational 1-0 battle, defeating the Akron Magyars in the Beacon Cup soccer championship in Akron. Alex Carnie scored the goal in the closing minutes of regulation play.