Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Nov. 15, the 319th day of 2009. There are 46 days left in the year. On this date in 1959, Kansas farmer Herbert Clutter, his wife, Bonnie, and the couple’s two youngest children, Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15, are found murdered in their home in Holcomb. (Two ex-convicts, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, are later convicted of the killings and hanged; the case is detailed in the Truman Capote book “In Cold Blood.”)

In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation, a precursor to the Constitution of the United States. In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sights the mountaintop now known as “Pikes Peak” in present-day Colorado. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1966, the flight of Gemini 12 ends successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. splash down safely in the Atlantic. In 1969, a quarter of a million protesters stage a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War. In 1984, Stephanie Fae Beauclair, the infant publicly known as “Baby Fae” who had received a baboon’s heart to replace her own congenitally deformed one, dies at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California three weeks after the transplant. In 1988, the Soviet Union launches its first space shuttle, Buran, on its only flight, which carries no crew.

November 15, 1984: Bruce J. Zoldan, Youngstown area fireworks merchandiser, announces plans to establish a sparkler manufacturing plant in the vacant McNicholas Transportation Co. terminal on W. Federal Street.

Sharon General Hospital opens a half-mile, nine-station exercise trail in the Shenango Valley Mall.

The Youngstown Area United Way has topped its campaign goal of $2.3 million by $5,000.

Paul Carlson, assistant executive director of Trumbull Memorial Hospital, is chairman of the local “National Smokeout” of the American Cancer Society. Carlson describes himself as a heavy smoker for 20 years who quit six months ago.

LTV Steel Corp.’s Flat Rolled Products Division will reduce its salaried work force at its Warren Works by 90 people by the end of the year.

November 15, 1969: Police are seeking two men who robbed a clerk at the McGuffey Plaza A&P supermarket and fled with an undisclosed amount of money after firing a shot into the ceiling.

Marine Pfc. Ralph E. Dias, 19, is killed in action in Vietnam.

An 18-year-old Pennsylvania youth described by police as the largest outlet for LSD in Youngstown is in city jail after being arrested at his apartment at 1527 Elm St. Suspected LSD, marijuana and equipment used for drugs is seized.

Trumbull County sheriff’s deputies are investigating a report that four people drowned at Mosquito Lake. Three hunters report seeing the boat go under near Hoffman’s Bay along route 88.

November 15, 1959: Dr. Stanton W. Simkins, assistant superintendent of Youngstown schools, resigns to become assistant superintendent of schools in Warren, Pa.

Foreign steel is pouring into the United States in record quantities, partly because of the shortage created by the steel strike.

Halloween goblins in Mahoning County’s annual collection for UNICEF gathers $5,626, more than double the total a year earlier.

November 15, 1934: Dr. L.G. Coe, giving a WKBN radio interview as part of the drive by physicians to wipe out diphtheria, says “Any parent or guardian who denies a child the protection of immunization against diphtheria is guilty of the child’s death if he dies of diphtheria.”

Judge Harry Hoffman criticizes Youngstown police for not proceeding properly to obtain search warrants and releases 53 men and two women in a raid on the “Cincinnati Lottery” at 454 W. Federal St.

Mrs. Norma Brenner of 239 Lora Ave., wins first prize of $100 in The Vindicator’s Bible contest, not only getting all the questions right, but illustrating them with hand drawn scenes from the Bible.