Years Ago

Today is Saturday, June 25, the 176th day of 2011. There are 189 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1788: Virginia ratifies the U.S. Constitution.

1876: Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

1910: President William Howard Taft signs the White-Slave Traffic Act, more popularly known as the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes.

1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is enacted.

1950: War breaks out in Korea as forces from the communist North invade the South.

1951: CBS transmits the first commercial color telecast from New York to four other cities using its field sequential system that is incompatible with existing black and white TVs.

1962: The Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, rules that recital of a state-sponsored prayer in New York State public schools is unconstitutional.

1981: The Supreme Court rules that male-only draft registration is constitutional.

1991: The western Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence.

2009: Death claims Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” in Los Angeles at age 50 and actress Farrah Fawcett in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 62.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Lawrence County commissioners want to meet with Butler County officials to hash out a dispute over whether a strip of property 1,000 to 2,000 feet deep and running several miles in Plaingrove and Scott townships should be in Lawrence or Butler County.

U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Lambros says he would give serious consideration to moving his courtroom to Youngstown if a proposed federal courthouse were built in the city.

Mahoning County commissioners interpret the lack of opposition as a vote of support for a hotel bed tax after no one appears to speak against the proposal at a public hearing.

1971: A large quantity of heroin and other narcotic drugs is seized and 80 people are arrested during early morning raids by Warren police and Trumbull County deputies following secret indictments returned by the Trumbull County grand jury.

Wean Industries Inc. receives contracts totaling $8 million for design and construction of units on a flat-rolled steel products plant for Sidnor at Matanzas, Venezuela.

Atty. Don E. Tucker assumes the position of president of the Mahoning County Bar Association, succeeding Arthur N.K. Friedman.

The top executives of seven major steel firms meet in Pittsburgh to announce their support for efforts to recycle bi-metal beer and soft drink cans.

1961: Youngstown firms report that they are fighting to keep top talent as national “head hunters” are recruiting executives and technicians from steel and other industries.

Mabel Marquis, executive director of the International Institute, known to thousands of foreign-born Youngstowners, retires after 35 years as the agency’s guiding spirit.

Struthers police confiscate hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks that were sold by a Center Street man to two teenagers, who apparently intended to resell more than 15,000 firecrackers and 5,000 rockets.

1936: Ellison D. Smith, a South Carolina delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, walks out after the Rev. Marshal Shepard, a Negro Baptist minister, offers the convocation.

Plans to widen Market Street from the city limits to Boardman have been presented to A.E. Ranney, division engineer of the State Highway Department.