Years Ago

Today is Monday, March 21, the 80th day of 2011. There are 285 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1685: Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, Germany.

1804: The French civil code, or the “Code Napoleon” as it was later called, is adopted.

1806: Mexican statesman Benito Juarez is born in the state of Oaxaca.

1907: U.S. Marines arrive in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.

1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan begin a four-day conference in Bermuda.

1960: About 70 people are killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fire on black protesters.

1965: More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. begin their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

1972: The Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, rules that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.

1981: Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Ala., is abducted, tortured and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. (A lawsuit brought by Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, later results in a landmark judgment that bankrupts one Klan organization.)

1985: Police in Langa, South Africa, open fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of Sharpeville; the reported death toll varies between 29 and 43.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Youngstown’s Harry Arroyo notches his third straight win on his comeback trail with an 8th round knockout of Paul Graham at Packard Music Hall in Warren.

Youngstown’s Park and Recreation Commission, anticipating a loss of revenue from Lake Milton, will close 10 playgrounds and two swimming pools for the summer.

Paul A. Reichert, former dean of the Kent State Ashtabula Campus, is named interim dean of Kent’s Trumbull branch.

1971: The Lordstown Local School District has become one of the wealthiest school districts in the state thanks to the General Motors plant and is planning construction of a new high school.

The Youngstown Development Review Committee approves construction of the Goodyear Retail and Automotive Service Center on E. Front Street between Champion and Walnut Streets.

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will remodel its South Side branch at 1771 Market Street. The general contractor, R.C. Organ Construction Co., will be paid $193,112.

Lt. Michael K. Glynn, a battle decorated Vietnam veteran, assumes command of the Youngstown Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Training Center on E. LaClede Avenue. He replaces Lt. Cmdr. James J. Brewer, who will be deployed to Vietnam.

1961: Liberty gives the Liberty High School Leopards a grand send off for their trip to Columbus where they will play for the Class A basketball championship.

A Youngstown University chemistry class of 25 students is evacuated after a bromine is spilled during a routine organic chemistry experiment that burned one student and filled the laboratory with offensive fumes.

Burglars enter the Mineral Ridge Post Office, but escape with only $170 in cash and a box of tools after their effort to peel the safe fails.

1936: William E. Borah, U.S. senator from Idaho and an avowed aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination, tells a partisan crowd at Stambaugh Auditorium that he is in favor of the Beaver-Mahoning route for a lake-to-river canal.

With the Mahoning River receding to just a little above normal, most roads have been reopened for travel, and trains, street cars, bus lines and dairy collections have resumed operation.

Two men, Sam Cruickshank, 50, a former roller at Carnegie Steel Co., and Mose King, a former teamster, are found burned to death in their shack on Salt Spring Road.

General Motors Corp. will spend $200,000 to expand its Packard Electric plant in Warren, William S. Knudsen, executive vice president of GM, announces at the annual dinner of the Warren Chamber of Commerce.