Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 15, the 319th day of 2011. There are 46 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1777: The Second Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.

1806: Explorer Zebulon Pike sights the mountaintop now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado.

1935: The Commonwealth of the Philippines is established as its new president, Manuel L. Quezon, takes office.

1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1961: Former Argentine President Juan Peron, living in exile in Spain, marries his third wife, Isabel.

1966: The flight of Gemini 12 ends successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. splash down in the Atlantic.

1969: A quarter of a million protesters stage a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War.

1985: Britain and Ireland sign an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in governing Northern Ireland.

Vindicator files

1986: Retail sales plunge 5 percent in October, the biggest decline on record, as consumer spending continues to be whipsawed by giant swings in auto sales.

The Campbell Memorial Red Devils lose to Kenston , 21-7, in a Division III, Region 9 playoff game before 6,000 fans at Mollenkopf Stadium in Warren.

Testimony ends in the tax evasion trial of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., but it will be months before the judge issues his verdict.

1971: Brothers Jeffrey Snyder, 8, and William Snyder, 9, of Poland drown after jumping into a strip mine lake near Enon Valley, Pa., in an attempt to save Linda Lee Stanley, 10, who slipped down an embankment and into the water. Scuba divers recover the three bodies from 40 feet of water.

The Broadway hit, “Pajama Game,” will be presented by 41 Boardman High School students.

Chris Duggan of Struthers, a junior in special education, is the Sweetheart of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity at YSU.

1961: The Rev. Charles D. Clark, Chicago’s “Hoodlum Priest,” who was the recent subject of a motion picture, comes to Youngstown as a guest of the Chesterton Club and meets with inmates in the Mahoning County Jail before giving a public address at the Rayen School auditorium.

Forest Dale Roth, 33, of Girard dies after being struck by a stray bullet in the Silver Dollar Cafe at 287 E. Federal St. the bullet was fired by a handyman at the bar who was playing with the gun.

Mahoning County, which ranks sixth in fatalities among the state’s 88 counties is going to have to crackdown on reckless drivers before the toll is reduced and local auto insurance rates come down.

1936: Chaney defeats Scienceville 20-0 in a game that was more interesting than its lopsided score would indicate, with touchdowns scored by Sinkovich, Poschner and Terlecki.

Mahoning County commissioners approve the purchase of an Addressograph system at a cost of $33,155, which will end the antiquated method of preparing county tax statements and save six weeks of work and $6,000 every year.

Republican and Democratic party organizations and the candidates in the November election in Mahoning County spent a total of $50,448, reports at the board of elections show.