YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2009. There are 102 days left in the year. On this date in 1519, Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. (Magellan is killed en route, but one of his ships eventually circles the world.)

In 1870, Italian troops take control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy. In 1873, panic sweeps the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures. In 1884, the National Equal Rights Party is formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco. In 1958, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when a black woman, Izola Curry, stabs him in the chest. (Curry is later found mentally incompetent.) In 1962, black student James Meredith is blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith is later admitted.) In 1973, in their so-called “battle of the sexes,” tennis star Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Astrodome in Houston. In 1984, a suicide car bomber attacks the U.S. Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing at least 14 people, including two Americans and 12 Lebanese. In 1989, F.W. de Klerk is sworn in as president of South Africa.

September 20, 1984: The Women’s Apparel Warehouse and the Little Red Shoe House in the former Higbee Co. building downtown have permanently closed their Youngstown stores and the Perelman Jewelry Store on Federal Plaza is starting a going out of business sale.

An Ashtabula dance instructor pleads innocent to charges of hitting seven cheerleaders with a stick while teaching them a dance routine for a midget league football team. The girls, 7 to 11 years old, had red marks and welts on their legs, said parents who filed a police report.

Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro issues an order that department heads may not take time off during the work week for time spent at City Council meetings.

September 20, 1969: An iron worker from Hubbard, John J. Sawaska, 26, is shot to death during a labor clash at the Fisher Body stamping plant construction site in Lordstown. The laborer’s union set up a picket line at the site and a shoving match with tradesmen attempting to cross evolved into a fist fight before shots rang out.

Jack Hunter, Republican candidate for mayor, assails Mayor Anthony B. Flask, Democrat, for not acting to end wage inequities that have resulted in 47 men at the incinerator making more than $9,000 a year, eight over $10,000 and one over $11,000, while the airport manager is paid $9,516 and a police captain or assistant fire chief gets $9,400.

The Mahoning County Republican Executive Committee recommends William H. Cossler, vice president of Youngstown Building Material and Fuel Co., for the state board of education, replacing the late Byron Wade.

September 20, 1959: Youngs–town University has its highest enrollment in history, 6,217. The heaviest enrollment is in the College of Arts and Sciences with 2,470.

The new Ohio Bureau of Unemployment Compensation office at 2026 South Ave. is completed and state employees are ready to move into the 25,000-square-foot building.

September 20, 1934: Scores of antique collectors descend on Poland to bid on the antique collection of Judge James B. Kennedy who is selling his collection to move to Florida. The collection is valued at $25,000.

A Senate munitions committee investigation reveals that $25,000 worth of tear gas has been purchased from a Pittsburgh laboratory for shipping to Youngstown in anticipation of threatened steel strike.