Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, March 15, the 74th day of 2011. 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.

1493: Christopher Columbus returns to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

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.

1956: The musical play “My Fair Lady,” based on Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” opens on Broadway.

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

1970: Expo ’70, promoting “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” opens in Osaka, Japan.

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

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Willard Scott, the man who presents Willard’s Weather on the NBC-TV “Today Show” hams it up during an appearance before a standing-room only audience at the Junior League of Youngstown Town Hall series at Powers Auditorium.

Bishop James S. Thomas, bishop of the East Ohio Area of the United Methodist Church, will attend Struthers United Methodist Church’s Centennial celebration.

Ohio State University says it will name Boston College coach Gary Williams as head coach of the Buckeye’s men’s basketball team.

1971: Youngstown records its first traffic fatality of 1971 when a collision at Glenwood Avenue and Cohasset Drive kills Mrs. Anna Watkins, 23.

A 22-year-old Youngs-town woman is charged by Mahoning County deputies with passing prescription diet pills to her husband during a visit at the county jail, where he is serving a one-year sentence.

Youngstown Municipal Judge Leo P. Morley is named “Irishman of the Year” by the Ancient Order of the Hibernians.

The Youngstown Symphony Society’s “Fill the Air with Music” ticket drive opens, with Mrs. Milton E. Greenberg as chairman and Mrs. Edward E. Ford as cochairman.

1961: The Mahoning Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church votes to dissolve Memorial Presbyterian Church at Wick Avenue and McGuffey Road.

President John F. Kennedy says he opposes shortening the work week beyond the present 40-hour, five-day week.

1936: The Dollar Savings & Trust Co. is made a member of the Federal Reserve system, Carl W. Ullman, president of the bank, announces.

Youngstowners will get a chance to inspect a 12 car streamlined train that is touring principal cities of the United States in an effort to stimulate business recovery.

James J. McNicholas, former police chief and president of the Mahoning Valley Hibernian Association, presides over the Hibernians’ annual reunion at the Hotel Ohio ballroom.