Today is Monday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2009. There are 283 days left in the year. On this date

March 23, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Monday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2009. There are 283 days left in the year. On this date in 1775, Patrick Henry addresses the Virginia Provincial Convention; according to biographer William Wirt, it is during this speech that Henry declares, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

In 1743, George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” has its London premiere. In 1806, explorers Lewis and Clark, having reached the Pacific Coast, begin their journey back east. In 1919, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement in Milan. In 1933, the German Reichstag adopts the Enabling Act, which effectively grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers. In 1956, Pakistan becomes an Islamic republic. In 1965, America’s first two-person space flight begins as Gemini 3 blasts off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly five-hour flight.

March 23, 1984: All three Consolidated Warehouse Co. discount stores will close because of a drastic decrease in business since the company filed for reorganization under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Act.

The Justice Department reaches a settlement with LTV Corp. and Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. requiring the companies to spend $30 million to control air pollution and pay $4 million in penalties.

March 23, 1969: Ten whistling swans, the vanguard of hundreds that normally stop in the Mahoning Valley during migration, are spotted at Evans Lake.

A.E. Genuske, principal of Boardman Junior High School, sends a letter to 1,000 parents informing them that there have been flagrant breakdowns in discipline. Two rival gangs, the Hoods and the Highlifes, have been organized, and some students have been found to be carrying knives.

March 23, 1959: Four Mahoning County Jail prisoners escaped from the two-year-old “escape-proof” jail after slugging one deputy and locking him up and kidnapping another. Deputy William L. Driskell is abandoned in McKinley Heights, bound and handcuffed, a half hour after the escape.

A 15-year-old East Liverpool youth accused of attempting to extort $500 from an East Liverpool physician by threatening to kill the physician’s wife and children is bound over to the federal court in Cleveland.

March 23, 1934: Quick thinking by Ben Defendeifer, manager of the Struthers branch of the Dollar Savings & Trust Co., prevents four heavily armed men from escaping with several thousand dollars. Defendeifer trigger a tear gas canister that sent the robbers running from the bank empty-handed.

Youngstown City Council announces its support for Mayor Mark Moore’s plan to cut city payroll by 50 percent.