Years Ago

March 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Monday, March 15, the 74th day of 2010. There are 291 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

44 B.C.: Roman dictator Julius Caesar is assassinated by a group of nobles that includes Brutus and Cassius.

1820 : Maine becomes the 23rd state.

1913: President Woodrow Wilson meets with reporters for what’s been described as the first presidential press conference.

1919: Members of the American Expeditionary Force from World War I convene in Paris for a three-day meeting to found the American Legion.

1964: Actress Elizabeth Taylor marries actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it is her fifth marriage, his second.

1975: Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis dies near Paris at age 69.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Gov. Richard F. Celeste orders 71 savings and loan associations in Ohio closed for three calendar days after thousands of depositors began a run on some Cincinnati area institutions.

Initial reaction is mixed to a 10-year facilities plan for Youngstown State University that was drafted by Fleishman Architects of Cleveland and is unveiled by YSU President Neil Humphrey.

1970: The completion of Interstate 80, which will run from New York to San Francisco through Youngstown within five years is expected to give the Valley a major lift in its industrial development.

Carl Rettenmier, a Boardman High School senior, is state champion in boys extemporaneous speaking. Boardman and Canton Lehman teams tie for first place in the Ohio High School Speech League contest in Columbus.

1960: Some 150 students at Cardinal Mooney High School present the third annual St. Patrick’s Day show in the school auditorium.

Construction is nearly complete on Warren’s newest school, McGuffey Elementary, being built on N. Tod Ave. at a cost of $360,000.

Youngstown police are following tips that lead to Chicago and Pittsburgh in their investigation into the gangland slaying of S. Joseph “Sandy” Naples and his girlfriend, Mary Ann Vrancich, on the porch of her Caledonia Street home.

1935: Trumbull Sheriff’s Deputy Frank W. Burnside says Thomas Fleetwood of Youngstown, who delivers numbers racket money from Youngstown to Steubenville each day, reported his car that contained $2,300 in cash stolen from in front of a Warren drug store.

Leaders of the Ohio and Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church are among the Protestant leaders testifying before the Ohio Senate in opposition to state funding for parochial schools. The funding would be the “surrender of the great principle of separation of church and state,” one pastor says.