Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Oct. 1, the 274th day of 2011. There are 91 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1908: Henry Ford introduces his Model T automobile to the market.

1910: A bomb destroys the offices of the Los Angeles Times; 21 employees die.

1936: Gen. Francisco Franco is proclaimed the head of an insurgent Spanish state.

1940: The first section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, 160 miles in length, is opened to the public.

1949: A 42-day strike by the United Steelworkers of America begins over the issue of retirement benefits.

1961: Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run during a 162-game season, compared to Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs during a 154-game season. (Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox gives up the round-tripper; the Yankees win 1-0.)

1971: Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Fla.

1987: Eight people are killed when an earthquake measuring magnitude 5.9 strikes the Los Angeles area.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Sharon city firefighters accept a new five-year contract that provides an immediate increase of $1,000, wage freezes for the next two years and reopener clauses for years four and five.

The unemployment rate in the Mahoning Valley rises because of seasonal factory shutdowns, particularly in the auto industry, hitting 9.6 percent in Mahoning County, 13.1 percent in Youngstown and 12.4 percent in Trumbull County.

More than 350 riders turn out for the second annual Blue Knights Motorcycle Ride, which covered 50 miles before ending with a party on Youngstown’s Federal Plaza. Proceeds of the ride benefit injured motorcyclists.

1971: The $1.8 million goal of the Youngstown Area United Appeal’s October campaign is not adequate to support all the needs of agencies in the community, says G.C. Duerr, chairman of the budget committee.

Youngstown Board of Education member Louis Marciella removes himself as a negotiator after questioning the right of Common Pleas Judge Sidney Rigelhaupt to inject himself in negotiations between the board and its employees.

1961: Some 40,000 Youngstown district basic steelworkers get pay raises of between $.80 and $5.20 per week .

More than 200 men of the 348th Engineers Pipeline Co. of the Army Reserves in the Youngstown district begin a one-year term of active duty at Fort Bragg, N.C..

Harold Freiheit, a member of Youngstown’s planning department staff, tells the Park and Recreation Commission that under no circumstances should the city sell Lake Milton to private interests.

Youngstown University upsets Toledo, 14-12, before a Homecoming crowd of 7,000 fans, getting its second straight gridiron victory.

1936: Arthur DuCasse Maag, secretary and treasurer of The Vindicator Printing Co., dies of pneumonia in North Side Hospital at the age of 45.

A jury of six men and six women in Beaver, Pa., finds the Motor Express Co. of Youngstown guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of school teacher Margaretta McCowin, who was killed when a nine-ton steel casting rolled off a truck as it ascended a hill and crushed her small sedan. Two Youngstown men, drivers of the truck, were acquitted.