Years Ago

September 24, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By The Today is Friday, Sept. 24, the 267th day of 2010. There are 98 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1789: Congress passes a Judiciary Act, which provided for an attorney general and a supreme court.

1869: Thousands of businessmen are ruined in a Wall Street panic known as “Black Friday” after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market.

1929: Lt. James H. Doolittle guides a Consolidated NY-2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.

1955: President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a heart attack while on vacation in Denver.

1960: The USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched at Newport News, Va. “The Howdy Doody Show” ends a nearly 13-year run with its final telecast on NBC.

1963: The U.S. Senate ratifies a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.

1969: The trial of the Chicago Eight (later seven) begins. (Five are convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic convention, but the convictions are ultimately overturned.)

1976: Former hostage Patricia Hearst is sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery in San Francisco carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was released after 22 months after receiving clemency from President Jimmy Carter.)

1998: The government circulates the new, harder-to-counterfeit $20 bill.

Vindicator files

1985: U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum resists an effort by Gov. Richard F. Celeste to unite the Ohio delegation behind a proposal for the federal government to sell Conrail. Noting that Conrail made a $500 million profit in 1984, Metzenbaum questioned why the railroad should be sold to investment bankers for $1.2 million.

Columbiana County is conducting a survey of telephone users aimed at establishing a 911 emergency call service in the county.

Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh says the state has extended its Sharon-Farrell Enterprise Zone to included the tornado-damaged sections of Wheatland and Hermitage.

1970: The trial of Youngstowner Richard “Dickie” Dota on counterfeiting charges was held for two days in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh before it is revealed that Dota wasn’t sitting at the defense table; a brother who looked like him had taken his place.

Carmen T. Semenoro, 32, an alleged enforcer for the Mafia who was indicted for extorting money from William Manus of Youngstown, is murdered gangland style in his Warrensville Heights apartment.

1960: Two con men bilk a Youngstown woman out of he savings of $6,800, persuading her to withdraw the money from a bank and replacing it with stage money. Her daughter reported the con to police after the mother nearly killed her- self in despair.

Mahoning Sheriff Paul Langley announces formation of a skin-diving squad to search area bodies of water for stolen loot and to replace dragging operations in the search for drowned people.

Republican vice presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge tells a crowd of 2,500 at the Idora Park Ballroom that the federal government should help eliminate pockets of unemployment in the country through defense contracts and working with local governments on job training and diversification.

1935: Archbishop Edward A. Mooney, bishop of Rochester, N.Y., and former Youngstown resident, arrives in Cleveland for the opening Mass of the seventh National Eucharistic Congress held at Public Auditorium. The Rev. Charles Hogan, once of Niles, is the organist and a number of other Youngstown priests participate.

City Clerk John H. Lemon wires President Roosevelt a resolution passed by city council asking for favorable federal action on the proposed Youngstown slum-clearing and housing project.