Years Ago

Today is Monday, Sept. 12, the 255th day of 2011. There are 110 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1943: German paratroopers take Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held by the Italian government.

1960: Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addresses questions about his Roman Catholic faith, telling a Southern Baptist group, “I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”

1961: The privately funded Woman in Space Program effectively comes to an end as 13 female pilots who had applied to become NASA astronauts are informed by the space agency that their spaceflight simulation tests in Pensacola, Fla., would not be taking place, after all.

1992: The space shuttle Endeavour blasts off, carrying with it Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space, and Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: U.S. House leaders reject a half-dozen amendments submitted by Rep. James A. Traficant, D-Youngstown, to the omnibus drug bill pending in Congress. Three of the amendments would have required judges to impose death penalties or life sentences for some drug-law violations.

City police are searching for a motive in the shooting death of Edward Bunkley, 51, a penniless man who made his home in a 10-year-old Ford station wagon. He was found shot five times at close range in the car, which was parked behind a vacant building at 505 Belmont Ave.

1971: Youngstown City Council approves $48,000 at the request of Mayor Jack C. Hunter to keep the Mahoning Valley Regional Transit Authority operating through the end of the year.

A Youngstown Cartage Co. pilot and copilot and their four passengers escape injury when the plane makes a fiery crash landing at Philadelphia International Airport during a blinding rainstorm. Pilot Charles Chesney of Columbiana says he saw a flash of light and an engine caught fire as he was approaching the runway.

1961: The race between Democratic Mayor Frank R. Franko and his Republican challenger, Harry Savasten, is heating up, and some observers believe as many as 70,000 voters will go to the polls in November.

William Einsley of Youngstown, a photographer for WKBN-TV, is hired by Boardman Township trustees as a full-time township constable.

1936: First reports in the Literary Digest’s presidential straw vote give Alfred M. Landon, Kansas governor and Republican presidential nominee, a three-to-two lead in Ohio over President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The third annual Greater Youngstown Flower Show opens at the Stambaugh Auditorium.

Dow Jones & Co. in Pittsburgh reports that steel scrap hits its highest price since September 1929, with No. 1 heavy melting quoted at $17.75 per ton.