Years Ago

March 26, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Friday, March 26, the 85th day of 2010. There are 280 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1804: The Louisiana Purchase is divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.

1827: Composer Ludwig van Beethoven dies in Vienna.

1885: The Eastman Dry Plate Co. of Rochester, N.Y., begins manufacturing the first commercial photographic film on paper rolls.

1892: Poet Walt Whitman dies in Camden, N.J.

1917: The Seattle Metropolitans become the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeat the Montreal Canadiens.

1971: East Pakistan proclaims its independence, taking the name Bangladesh.

1979: A peace treaty is signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and witnessed by President Jimmy Carter at the White House.

1997: The bodies of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate techno-religious cult who’d committed suicide are found inside a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Trustees of St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center seek state approval for a $2 million expansion of the hospital’s emergency rooms.

The State Controlling Board approves the Hubbard School District’s application for a $412,000 state emergency loan. The Hubbard school board announces the lay-off of six teachers for the coming school year and says it will place an operating levy on the ballot.

Lawyers for the city and the minority employees of the Youngstown Police Department report progress toward an agreement on a plan for minority hiring and promotion in the department.

1970: Second Ward Councilman Herman “Pete” Starks criticizes the Youngstown Health Department for its failure in efforts to stop illegal dumping of trash and garbage and for not cleaning up known dumping areas.

Eleven freight cars being shoved into the Gateway yard in Struthers derail, blocking one mainline into the yard for the better part of a day while the cars are put back on track and spilled scrap is cleaned up.

Fifteen members of the Youngstown Police Department complete an eight-week course in public speaking sponsored by the Executive Toastmasters Club 408. Sgt. Mizell Steward, commander of public relations, said officers are often called on as speakers for the police department.

1960: Fire sweeps thro-ugh a two-story frame home on Route 534 in Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, killing three young children, David, Mary and Kathy Hammons, ages 4, 2 and 1. The children’s parents, George and Eileen, an infant and an uncle are in St. Joseph Hospital.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown, who has served 24 years in the House of Representatives, receives an honorary doctor of humanities degree from Oklahoma City University.

Harold C. Waller, Youngstown district supervisor of the U.S. Census, urges families in which both the husband and wife work to fill out their form, seal it in an envelope and give it to a neighbor to turn over to the enumerator when he calls.

Playing at the Paramount, Elvis Presley in “Jailhouse Rock.”

1935: Workers employed in building the new McDonald continuous strip mill plant of the Carnegie Steel Co. start on two six-hour “daylight” shifts, eliminating the night shift that had been working under powerful floodlights.

Officers from Youngs–town, Washington and Akron direct the annual convention of District Six of the International Quota Club at the Ohio Hotel in Youngstown. Among the leaders are Miss Annabelle Thomas, retiring international secretary treasurer; Miss Elizabeth White, executive secretary in Washington; Miss Marcella Schultz, convention chairman; Mrs. Frank Higgins, local president, and Miss Ella T. Steele, retiring district governor from Akron.