Today is Sunday, March 22, the 81st day of 2009. There are 284 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Sunday, March 22, the 81st day of 2009. There are 284 days left in the year. On this date in 1765, Britain enacts the Stamp Act of 1765 to raise money from the American colonies. (The Act is repealed the following year.)

In 1638, religious dissident Anne Hutchinson is expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for defying Puritan orthodoxy. In 1820, U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur is killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington. In 1882, President Chester Alan Arthur signs a measure outlawing polygamy. In 1929, a U.S. Coast Guard vessel sinks a Canadian-registered schooner, the I’m Alone, in the Gulf of Mexico. (The schooner is suspected of carrying bootleg liquor.) In 1933, during Prohibition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal. In 1941, the Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam in Washington state goes into operation. In 1945, the Arab League is formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo. In 1958, movie producer Mike Todd and three other people are killed in the crash of Todd’s private plane near Grants, N.M. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson names Gen. William C. Westmoreland to be the Army’s new chief of staff. In 1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of “The Flying Wallendas” high-wire act, falls to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

March 22, 1984: The Job Training Partnership of Ohio awards $700,000 to the General Electric Co. and $500,000 to the Trumbull County Private Industry Council to retrain workers who are being put out of work.

Richard Marino, 1st Ward councilman in Niles, declares “war” on organized gambling in the city, responding, he says, to complaints he’s received from members of the community.

Mahoning County Engineer Michael Fitas recommends to Mahoning County commissioners that the Mahoning Avenue Bridge be closed at once because of its deteriorating condition.

March 22, 1969: Benada Aluminum Products Co. of Girard begins work on a major expansion that will cost $2 million.

The 910th Tactical Airlift Group at Youngstown Municipal Airport will become a trainer of forward air controllers, ending its mission of troop and cargo transport and reducing the unit’s manpower by at least 12 percent.

State liquor enforcement agents and police intelligence men arrest 11 people in two visits within three hours to the Zanzibar Lounge on Market Street, charging them with selling liquor to underage drinkers or drinking underage.

March 22, 1959: Salem’s Quakers fall in the state championship basketball game to Cleveland East Tech, 71-55.

The upturn in business in 1959 is pouring an estimated $5 million to $6 million more a week in Youngstown district paychecks. Totals, however, remain below the highpoint of 1957.

Eddie Reapsummer of Girard and David Cervone of Youngstown win first prize in the first annual model airplane contest sponsored by the Youngstown Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Model Aircraft Engineers of Youngstown.

March 22, 1934: Youngstown Mayor Mark E. Moore orders city services, including police and fire forces, cut by half in an economy measure.

After relief director Ray Noble agrees to pay $114,000 in unpaid bills for January to Youngstown grocers and meat dealers, they agree to provide food to 14,000 needy families.

Installation of $40,000 in new equipment begins at the General Electric Co.’s Niles glass plant, spiking rumors that have been circulating for six months that the company planned to move the Niles operations to Cleveland.