Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, March 16, the 75th day of 2011. There are 290 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1802: President Thomas Jefferson signs a measure authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

1926: Rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tests the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass.

1968: During the Vietnam War, the My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians is carried out by U.S. Army troops.

1984: William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, is kidnapped by terrorists (he is tortured by his captors and killed in 1985).

1985: Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, is abducted in Beirut; he is released in Dec. 1991.

1991: U.S. skaters Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan sweep the World Figure Skating Championships in Munich, Germany.

1994: Figure skater Tonya Harding pleads guilty in Portland, Ore., to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Mahoning County Common Pleas judges are looking into ways to recoup the cost of providing lawyers for indigent clients, which has climbed to $300,000 a year.

The Ohio Department of Transportation rebuts local officials who are seeking construction of an interchange at King Graves Road and state Route 11 in Trumbull County, which would serve the Youngstown Municipal Airport.

1971: Ohio Gov. John J. Gilligan proposes a tax package that would institute a personal and corporate income tax as high as 4 percent on those earning $10,000 or more, coupled with nearly a half billion in cuts to other taxes.

A bandit wearing a white turban enters the Western Union office at 213 W. Boardman street about 7:30 a.m., pulls a gun on an attendant and escapes with $159 from the safe and cash drawer.

1961: “America is threatened more by its lack of religious commitment than by the world conspiracy of outside enemies,” the Rev. Perry Epler Gresham, president of Bethany College, says at the third union Lenten service of four Wick Avenue churches.

Warren Detective Capt. Vern Teeple estimates a dozen sticks of dynamite were used to damage the vacant brick home of Warren Municipal Judge James Ravella at 3076 Overlook Drive. The judge and his family were reported vacationing in Florida.

1936: The board of directors of the Youngstown Municipal Railway Co. approves city council’s plan to install trackless trolleys on four South Side transportation lines.

Thirteen people escape death from a fire that engulfed the Vacca building at 3332 Wilson Avenue, Campbell.