Today is Friday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2009. There are 272 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2009. There are 272 days left in the year. On this date in 1936, Bruno Hauptmann is electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

In 1776, George Washington receives an honorary doctor of laws degree from Harvard College. In 1865, Union forces occupy the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va. In 1882, outlaw Jesse James is shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang. In 1946, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, is executed by firing squad outside Manila, Philippines. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signs into law the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist Communism. In 1974, deadly tornadoes strike wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; more than 300 fatalities result. In 1996, an Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard.

April 3, 1984: Dr. Marvin L. Goldberger, one of the nation’s foremost nuclear physicists and president of the California Institute of Technology, tells a group of 200 at Rodef Sholom Temple says the technology doesn’t exist to build a “Star Wars” missile defense system such as the one President Ronald Reagan has proposed.

Cardinal Mooney High School alumni pack the Idora Park Ballroom for a dance celebrating the 25th anniversary of the school’s first graduating class. Organizers sold 900 advanced tickets and alumni came from as far away as California and

April 3, 1969: Mahoning County deputies will receive wage increases ranging from $906 to $1,682 annually under an agreement reached between Sheriff Ray T. Davis and Teamsters Local 377.

Youngstown Police Chief John Terlesky says he has put the department’s “master cruiser, formerly known as “the flying squad,” on 24-hour duty to strengthen the fight against the city’s increasing crime rate. A sergeant and two patrolmen will patrol downtown and be ready to respond to any trouble spot in the city.

April 3, 1959: Three young men, 18, 19 and 20 years old, are sentenced to a minimum of three years in the Mansfield Reformatory by Judge Erskine Maiden Jr. For the kidnapping and rape of 15-year-old Struthers girl. Had they been old enough to be sentenced to the penitentiary, the would have faced 5 to 30 years for kidnapping and 3 to 20 years for rape.

State Highway Department projects amounting to $45 million are scheduled for Mahoning, Columbiana, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties between 1959 and June 1961.

A rubbish truck driver brings a fire to Youngstown’s No. 2 Fire Station on Oak Street, but end up using a garden hose to douse the flames in his truck himself after he couldn’t awake the sleeping firemen by banging on the door.

April 3, 1934: Angered at claims that the county has not supported relief efforts, Mahoning County commissioners complain about waste in the local program. They say the county offered the relief office furnished space at $25 a month, but relief officials chose to rent an office for $800 a month.

Steel output in the Youngstown district advances another point to 53 percent, with 46 of 83 open hearth furnaces operating.

Beaver Falls city council passes resolution in support of a canal along the Mahoning and Beaver Rivers to the Ohio River.