Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Sept. 3, the 246th day of 2009. There are 119 days left in the year. On this date in 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland. A German U-boat torpedoes and sinks the Montreal-bound British liner SS Athenia some 250 miles off the Irish coast, killing more than 100 people, including 28 Americans, out of the 1,400 or so on board. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a radio address in which he says the U.S. is preparing a proclamation of neutrality in the European conflict.

In A.D. 590, Pope St. Gregory I is consecrated as the successor to Pope Pelagius II. In 1189, England’s King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) is crowned in Westminster Abbey. In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson and his crew aboard the Half Moon enter present-day New York Harbor and begin sailing up the river that now bears his name. (They reach present-day Albany before turning back.) In 1658, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, dies in London. In 1943, the British Eighth Army invades Italy during World War II, the same day Italy signs a secret armistice with the Allies. In 1951, the television soap opera “Search for Tomorrow” makes its debut on CBS. (It runs on CBS until 1982, when it moved to NBC until its final episode, which airs in December 1986.) In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu is elected president of South Vietnam under a new constitution. Motorists in Sweden begin driving on the right-hand side of the road instead of the left. In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touches down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet’s surface. In 1978, Pope John Paul I is installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

September 3, 1984: Walter Mondale lost Mahoning County and barely won Trumbull County in the May Democratic primary because his campaign staff failed to have him make public appearances in the area, but campaign workers say that won’t happen in the general election.

The Sanor family says it will rebuild the Beloit Hardwood Co. Sawmill, which was destroyed by a $250,000 fire.

Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman Don L. Hanni Jr. asks for the help of Republican Chairman Dr. William Binning in persuading Mahoning County residents to donate their state income tax refund checks to the Youngstown Revitalization Foundation.

September 3, 1969: Struthers sends home 3,300 students as janitors join striking teachers on the picket lines.

Five Warren police officers working as private security at a teen dance at the Yankee Run Inn are charged with having harassed and assaulted two black Sharon, Pa., youths following the dance.

All 103 members of New Castle’s Public Works Department call off sick, most of them in sympathy with 29 garbage collectors who started the sick-out.

September 3, 1959: Police say a 30-year-old Youngstown man attempted to commit suicide by entering the rapids above Niagara Fails, but changed his mind as the water swept him toward the falls and struggled out of the water and returned to his truck, where he was fined by police.

Charles Tomlinson, Salem parks and recreation superintendent, says the swimming pool at Centennial Park is enjoying its best season since the pool opened in 1954, with 42,000 children and adults having used the pool.

At the Kenley Players, Dorothy Collins as “Dream Girl,” co-starring Robert Goulet.

September 3, 1934: Nell Brady and her dancing students join local musicians and entertainers in presenting the third gala show for patients at the Mahoning County Tuberculosis Hospital.

A sharp rise in the cost of living, reaching a high as 22.5 percent of the low point of November 1933, is noted in the Youngstown food price report for July and August released by Dr. George W. Eddy, chairman of the Mahoning County Consumers Council.

Mrs. Miller’s pre-school for children two to six years old will open for its second season on Wick Avenue with a curriculum that includes clay modeling, drawing, music and conversational French through games, songs and plays.