Years ago

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 2, the 245th day of 2009. There are 120 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, Japan formally surrenders in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupy Atlanta. In 1930, the first nonstop airplane flight from Europe to the U.S. is completed in 37 hours as Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte of France arrives in Valley Stream, N.Y., aboard their Breguet 19 biplane, which bears the symbol of a large question mark. In 1935, a hurricane slams into the Florida Keys, claiming more than 400 lives. In 1945, Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam an independent republic. (Ho dies on this date in 1969.) In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Defense Education Act, which provides aid to public and private education to promote learning in such fields as math and science. In 1969, the first automatic teller machine (ATM) to use magnetic-striped cards is opened to the public at Chemical Bank in New York. (Called a “Docuteller,” it is developed by Donald C. Wetzel.)

September 2, 1984: School buses are being used to shuttle people to and from the Canfield Fairgrounds, where rain has made some parking lots adjacent to the grounds unusable.

Figures from the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services show that Youngstown-Warren area factory workers earn $76 more per week than other Ohio factory workers, a trend that began in the 1970s and is being bolstered by the General Motors plant at Lordstown and what remains of the steel industry in the Mahoning Valley.

Workers at General Motors and Ford Motor Co. vote overwhelmingly to strike to back-up their demands for increases in wages, benefits and job security.

September 2, 1969: Atty. Nathaniel R. Jones, a Youngstown native, is named general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and will work from its headquarters in New York City.

A 6-year-old South Side girl and her aunt, who tried to rescue her, drown in Midway Lake in Ashtabula County. Dead are Esther M. Davis, 31, and Stephanie Whitted, both of 207 Garfield St.

Two men are being sought for the attempted kidnapping of a Sharon, Pa., woman on Youngstown’s North Side. A police chase ended with the crash of the getaway car at the Hubbard Road railroad crossing and shots fired by police at one of the fleeing men.

September 2, 1959: Some 170 wholesale bread truck drivers for the Mahoning Valley’s five major bakeries, Ward’s, Continental, Schwebel, Keystone and Grennan, vote unanimously to strike if their wage demands are not met.

Negotiations are underway for transfer of the Boardman Transit Co. franchise to the Youngstown Transit Co.

The Mahoning County Board of Child Welfare agrees to take over administration of programs for retarded children.

September 2, 1934: Joseph Cefalde, a Youngstown real estate man, has been experimenting with raising tomatoes for a few years, and now his backyard plants at his Whitney Street home are almost 7-feet tall and have earned him the title “Tomato King.”

Eighteen Sisters of the Humility of Mary pronounce vows and 12 postulants receive the habit of the order when Auxiliary Bishop James A. McFadden of Cleveland officiates at a ceremony at Villa Maria Convent, New Bedford, Pa.

Anshe Emeth Temple’s new cantor, Paul Discount, arrives in Youngstown from Hartford, Conn.

The Canfield Fair attracts 30,000 on opening day, the largest first-day attendance in history.