Today is Friday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2009. There are 293 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Friday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2009. There are 293 days left in the year. On this date in 1933, banks begin to reopen after a “holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1781, the planet Uranus is discovered by Sir William Herschel. In 1884, Congress officially adopts Eastern Standard Time for the District of Columbia. In 1901, the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, dies in Indianapolis at age 67. In 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly approves a bill prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin Peay signs the measure on March 21.) In 1928, hundreds of people die when the San Francisquito Valley in California is inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam bursts just before midnight the evening of March 12. In 1964, bar manager Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, 28, is stabbed to death near her home in the New York City borough of Queens; the case generates controversy over the supposed failure of Genovese’s neighbors to respond to her cries for help. In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splash down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the lunar module.

March 13, 1984: Ohio Board of Education member Jack C. Hunter of Youngstown fails to win enough support for a minimum grade average for students participating in athletics and other extracurricular activities.

Mahoning County commissioners give preliminary approval to the issuance of $10 million in industrial revenue bonds for a proposed brewery in North Jackson.

A group of South Side residents expresses opposition to establishment of a $1.3 million facility for nonviolent criminals by the Mahoning County Community Corrections Association.

March 13, 1969: Six Roman Catholic teaching brothers, including the president of Walsh College, are overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a car left running in a basement garage. Two remain hospitalized in critical condition.

A dozen employees escape without injury from a fire in the Bort Meat Packing Co., W. South Range Road, Beaver Township. Damage is expected to run more than $100,000.

Army Spec. 4 Terrance Weant, 22, of Lodwick NW, is reported killed in Vietnam, raising Trumbull County’s war toll to 31.

March 13, 1959: Youngstown University bows out of the National Intercollegiate basketball tournament in Kansas City, but not before Dom Roselli’s Penguins give defending champion Tennessee A&I one of its stiffest challenges in three years. Tennessee wins, 89-80.

Youngstown University announces an increase in tuition of $2 per semester hour or about $60 a year. The charge will be $16 per hour.

An East Side bugman is taken for a ride on the city’s East Side by two men who shoot him three times. Michael “Jocko” Walley is in serious condition in St. Elizabeth Hospital.

March 13, 1934: Veterans of William McKinley Post, American Legion, entertain Gen. Smedley Butler at a dinner in Wickliffe Manor.

Judge John C. Pollock, 76, a member of the 7th District Court of Appeals for 22 years, dies of a heart attack at the Mahoning County Courthouse shortly after discussing a case.

The Youngstown Civil Service Commission announces a new rule making “bad debts” owed by police officers and firemen as cause for dismissal. Local merchants have complained that they have been carrying debts by some policemen for years.