Today is Thursday, Sept. 18, the 262nd day of 2008. There are 104 days left in the year. On this

Today is Thursday, Sept. 18, the 262nd day of 2008. There are 104 days left in the year. On this date in 1793, President Washington lays the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.

In 1759, the French formally surrender Quebec to the British. In 1810, Chile makes its initial declaration of independence from Spain. In 1850, Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, which creates a force of federal commissioners charged with returning escaped slaves to their owners. In 1851, the first edition of The New York Times is published. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas hold the fourth of their senatorial debates, this one in Charleston, Ill. In 1927, the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) makes its on-air debut with a basic network of 16 radio stations. In 1947, the National Security Act, which created a National Military Establishment, goes into effect. In 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash in northern Rhodesia. In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix dies in London at age 27. In 1975, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1998, over Democratic objections, the House Judiciary Committee votes to release President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony as well as 2,800 pages of sometimes graphic evidence compiled by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

September 18, 1983: Pamela Rigas of Canfield is fourth runner-up in the Miss America Pageant, one of few local women to ever compete in the contest and the first to finish in the top five. Miss America is Vanessa Williams, first black woman to win the crown.

The expected boom in new cars and trucks in the 1984 model year is bringing optimism for better times in fall and winter for the auto- and steel-oriented Youngstown district.

The office of Gov. Richard Celeste has plugged into the computer age, using an electronic system to send messages, answer mail and draft speeches and press releases.

September 18, 1968: Five students from Youngstown State University are arrested and drugs valued at $20,000 are seized in a raid by the Unguents Intelligence and Security squad at an apartment at 650 Elm St.

Marine Brig. Gen. William Chip, 49, of Arlngton, Va., a New Castle, Pa., native, suffers a fractured spine when his helicopter crashed while he was directing troop movements in Vietnam. He is the son of the late George Chip of New Castle, former middleweight boxing champion of the world.

The president of Eazor Express Inc. says it will close its strikebound Warren, Ohio, terminal, focal point of a walkout that has crippled the company’s operations.

September 18, 1958: A priest from St. Paul Monastery and a young Columbiana County housewife are killed in a head-on collision in Market Street, a block south of Boardman High School. Dead are the Rev. John Carolla, 36, and Mrs. Phyllis Garrod, 20.

A private corporation is organized to take over public schools in Little Rock, Ark., and open its closed high schools as segregated schools. Negro leaders say the plan won’t work to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling the public schools must be integrated.

Ohio Gov. C. William O’Neil gives a veiled endorsement of the “right to work” constitutional amendment that would outlaw forced unionism in the state.

September 18, 1933: The Andrew Horvath family is the first family in Youngstown to get a mortgage from the Home Owners Loan Corp., saving their home at 440 Emery St. from being foreclosed on after they had paid off all but $1,200 of $3,000 on their first mortgage.

Hundreds of milk workers, distributors and retailers will have to appear at the office of the city milk inspector in Youngstown to apply for licenses under the Milk Marketing Commission.

Speaking before one of the largest assemblies of workers ever held in Youngstown, Michael Tighe, president of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, calls upon the steel workers of the Mahoning Valley to take the lead in the move for unionization of workers throughout the United States.