Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Aug. 25, the 237th day of 2011. There are 128 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1916: The National Park Service is established within the Department of the Interior.

1944: Paris is liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

1958: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a measure providing pensions for former U.S. presidents and their widows.

1985: Samantha Smith, 13, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, dies with her father in an airliner crash in Auburn, Maine.

2009: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy dies at age 77 in Hyannis Port, Mass.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Former Mayor Jack C. Hunter says the Federal Plaza, which was built during his administration, was a good idea for the times, but tearing it out is the right thing to do now.

Youngstown Hospital Association announces impending dismissals and layoffs at its three institutions just two days after a strike by pharmacist and lab technicians is settled.

1971: A dispute between a member of a motorcycle gang and a black youth over the cyclist’s girlfriend at the Golden Pheasant Tavern sparks a disturbance that spreads over a five block area.

Ohio Welfare Director John Hansan announces a cut from $10 per day to $9 in what the state pays nursing homes for the care of welfare patients.

1961: Atty. Harry N. Savasten, Republican candidate for mayor, says Youngstown faces bankruptcy or new taxes unless the orgy of municipal spending is stopped.

Mahoning County commissioners are notified that the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Office expects to run out of money by mid-September and the welfare department will run out of money a month later.

Wayne Johnson of Canfield-Salem Road will bring his eight-pony hitch to the Canfield Fair.

1936: Youngstown Water Commissioner Paul E. Lyden announces that all meters in the city will be sealed in an effort to stymie the theft of water. The department estimates that it is losing $64,000 a year in thefts and water leaks.

Three armed bandits club James Massullo, proprietor of the Corner Bar at Falls and Oak Hill Avenue, with the guns and fire three shots before escaping with $300 in a hold up. Massullo had been robbed near his home in the spring of $5,100.