Today is Wednesday, March 25, the 84th day of 2009. There are 281 days left in the year. On this

Today is Wednesday, March 25, the 84th day of 2009. There are 281 days left in the year. On this date in 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. leads 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.

In 1865, during the Civil War, Confederate forces attack Fort Stedman in Virginia but are forced to withdraw by counterattacking Union troops. In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey begins leading an “army” of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington to demand help from the federal government. In 1918, French composer Claude Debussy dies in Paris. In 1911, 146 people, mostly female immigrants, are killed when fire breaks out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York. In 1947, a coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., claims 111 lives. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community. In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew is beheaded in June 1975.)

March 25, 1984: The Youngs-town State University Board of Trustees names Dr. Neil Humphrey president of the university during a meeting at which trustees were expected to discuss the possibility of replacing Dr. John J. Coffelt, who has been on medical leave.

Metered parking within the downtown business district, a losing proposition for the city in recent years, could become a lucrative business, says Edward DeCarlo, the city’s traffic coordinator.

Stanley Woodbridge, 27, surrenders to police after eluding them for two days, but denies he killed Youngstown Police Sgt. Buddy Taylor.

March 25, 1969: The Mahoning County Tuberculosis Sanatorium will apply for Hill Burton funds to convert the sanatorium into a lung hospital, says Jennie Delesandro, chairman of the board.

Vandals go on a spree of senseless destruction, wrecking the interior of the Sherwood Forest home of Dr. Anthony J. Bayuk, 1323 St. Alban Drive.

James M. Dawson, vice president and economist for the National City Bank of Cleveland, tells 50 members of the Youngstown Section, Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, that the 1970s “promises an economic boom for the Mahoning Valley.”

March 25, 1959: A gun battle at 90 mph on Geauga County highways ends northeastern Ohio’s biggest manhunt in years with the capture of three men and a women who broke out of the Mahoning County Jail.

Ohio Gov. Michael DiSalle makes a personal appeal to the House Judiciary Committee to submit a bill to the full House that would outlaw capital punishment in the state.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections will remain open till 9 p.m. to give residents a last chance to qualify for voting in the May 5 primary election.

March 25, 1934: An ordinance setting up local liquor regulations to aid state enforcement is submitted to Law director U.F. Kistler for introduction to City Council.

Most of the 800 delegates who gathered for a two-day Parent-Teacher Association conference agree to press the Legislature to make state funds available for the needy school districts.

The Beaver-Mahoning waterway project reaches a crucial stage with the House Rivers and Harbor Committee scheduled to act on it within 10 days.