Today is Monday, March 30, the 89th day of 2009. There are 276 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Monday, March 30, the 89th day of 2009. There are 276 days left in the year. On this date in 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot and seriously injured outside a Washington hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also wounded are White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty.

In 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Ga., first uses ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation. In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reaches agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal roundly ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly.” In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, giving all citizens the right to vote regardless of race, is declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. Texas is readmitted to the Union. In 1909, the Queensboro Bridge, linking the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, opens. In 1959, a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Bartkus v. Illinois, rules that a conviction in state court following an acquittal in federal court for the same crime does not violate the Constitution’s protection against double jeopardy. In 1964, John Glenn withdraws from the Ohio race for the U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall. In 2002, Britain’s Queen Mother Elizabeth dies in her sleep at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old.

March 30, 1984: By a vote of 80-19, employees at Youngstown Steel Door Co. approve a concession-filled contract, ending a six-month strike against the maker of railroad car components.

Two members of the Girard Board of Education file a complaint in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court accusing the other three members of the board of violating the state’s Sunshine Law by holding closed caucuses prior to public meetings.

Youngstown’s 1984 city budget is approved on blind faith by city council members who didn’t have time to study it, but passed it to make sure that city employees don’t miss a payday. Councilman Herman P. Starks says the budget, which by law must be passed by March 31, can be amended.

March 30, 1969: Mahoning County commissioners pass the 1969 final appropriations budget of $6.2 million in the general fund and $15.3 million overall.

The Rev. C.H. Ostreich, pastor of Christ Lutheran church in Struthers for 38 years, announces his retirement.

March 30, 1959: State liquor retail stores in the Youngstown area report sales increases of 100 percent in the days leading up to state-ordered price increases.

Lois Shumaker of Lake Milton, an 11th grader at Jackson-Milton High School, is one of 12 state winners of the American Legion essay contest and wins an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C.

Common Pleas Judge David G. Jenkins issues an injunction barring the City of Youngstown from changing the zoning on Canfield Road near Cornersburg from Residential A to Commercial A to facilitate shopping plaza interests.

March 30, 1934: Mahoning County is warned that all state and federal relief aid will be ended unless the county pays its share of $146,068 toward expenditures in January, February, March and April.

The steel industry’s 10 percent wage increase to mill workers will be extended to salaried employees in lower brackets.