Today is Saturday, Sept. 13, the 257th day of 2008. There are 109 days left in the year. On this

Today is Saturday, Sept. 13, the 257th day of 2008. There are 109 days left in the year. On this date in 1788, the Congress of the Confederation authorizes the first national election, and declares New York City the temporary national capital.

In 1759, during the final French and Indian War, the British defeat the French on the Plains of Abraham overlooking Quebec City. In 1803, Commodore John Barry, considered by many the father of the American Navy, dies in Philadelphia. In 1851, American medical pioneer Walter Reed is born in Gloucester County, Va. In 1907, the RMS Lusitania arrives in New York, completing its maiden voyage from England. In 1948, Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine is elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

September 13, 1983: A main cross-country natural gas transmission line ruptures in Wilmington Township, causing the evacuation of residents living within half a mile of the site on Route 468, just east of Route 18.

Among the contestants arriving in Atlantic City for the Miss America pageant is Pamela Rigas of Canfield, Miss Ohio.

The B.J. Alan Co. files a $400,000 lawsuit against Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. accusing the sheriff of abusing his police powers in shutting down the company’s operations in the days leading up to the Fourth of July.

September 13, 1968: Julie Nixon speaks in behalf of her father’s presidential bid before a large crowd, including many young people, at the Trumbull GOP headquarters in Warren.

Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon must accept the record of three recessions during the eight years he was vice president, U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie says while speaking at the Hotel Ohio in Youngstown.

Hubert H. Humphrey III, oldest son of vice president and Democratic party presidential nominee, rolls two gutter balls to the delight of a small crowd at the Wedgewood Lanes in Austintown during a campaign stop.

September 13, 1958: A 33-year-old Southern Boulevard man pleads innocent in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to charges that he attempted to extort $50,000 from Youngstown industrialist Leon A. Beeghly.

Jack Dudek of Cleveland, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, addresses officers of the Youngstown Police Department and their wives at the annual Police Communion Breakfast at St Ann Church.

Youngstown department store sales for the four-week period ending Sept. 6 was down 6 percent compared to the same period in 1957.

September 13, 1933: Youngstown police stake out a West Side rendezvous for underworld characters on the theory that one or more of the seven bank desperadoes who robbed the Gully State Bank in Farrell might be in Youngstown.

Frank Purnell, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. says the steel industry has put into effect all the labor provisions of the steel code in the National Recovery Act, providing work for thousands of men.