Today is Tuesday, March 31, the 90th day of 2009. There are 275 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, March 31, the 90th day of 2009. There are 275 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, at the conclusion of a nationally broadcast address, President Lyndon B. Johnson shocks his listeners by announcing he would not seek another term of office.

In 1809, English poet Edward FitzGerald, best known for his translation of “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” is born in Suffolk. In 1880, Wabash, Ind., becomes the first town in the world to be illuminated by electrical lighting. In 1889, French engineer Gustave Eiffel unfurls the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower, officially marking its completion. In 1917, the United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark. In 1933, Congress approves, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs, the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1945, the Tennessee Williams play “The Glass Menagerie” opens on Broadway. In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court rules that Karen Ann Quinlan, who was in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, dies in 1985.) In 2005, Terri Schiavo, 41, dies at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute.

March 31, 1984: The Ohio Supreme Court lets stand a lower court ruling that the city of Youngstown erred when it reduced the work week for city employees from 40 hours to 32 hours a week.

Rosemary Durkin, Youngstown clerk of courts, is named 1984 Boss of the Year by the Yo-Mah Chapter of the Professional Secretaries International.

Youngstown Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro takes a step toward enforcing the city’s residency rule by ordering an update of personnel files, including the current home addresses of all city employees.

March 31, 1969: Four members of a Hubbard family are dead and the driver of the 1969 Mustang in which they were riding is injured after the car strikes a tree on Pa. Route 932 near New Bedford. Dead are Ronald K. Gongaware, 28; his wife, Norma Lee, 27, and their children, Theodore, 4, and Tamara, 2.

Burglars get jewelry, wigs, and pharmaceuticals valued at $$30,000 in a burglary at the Consolidated store, on South Avenue in Boardman.

The Youngstown YMCA board of trustees decides to go ahead with expansion plans at the Central Y, even though its development fund has not yet reached a $2 million goal.

March 31, 1959: Long lines of automobile, truck and trailer owners queue up at the Youngstown Automobile Club, South Side Merchants & Civic Association and other outlets as the midnight deadline for new license plates draws near.

Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Henry P. Beckenbach says he “would welcome” state aid and a new state juvenile department proposed by Gov. Michael DiSalle.

March 31, 1934: Youngstown’s 150 firemen and many other city workers will work full time for two months for half pay, but the police department’s hours will be cut in half.

Three men who picked Good Friday to loot St. Maron’s Church of two gold chalices, six candlesticks and two candelabra valued at $700 land in jail and the loot is recovered, although heavily damaged.

Unable to find any of Youngstown’s unlighted air fields in the darkness, two Paris aviators touring the United States make an emergency landing on the Powell golf course in Hubbard, narrowly escaping damage to their airplane.

Successful Golden Gloves boxers Mickey Cutic and Danny Farrar will be honored by the Campbell Athletic Club with a dance.