Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 14, the 257th day of 2011. There are 108 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1861: The first naval engagement of the Civil War takes place as the USS Colorado attacks and sinks the Confederate private schooner Judah off Pensacola, Fla.

1901: President William McKinley dies in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him.

1964: Pope Paul VI opens the third session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, known as “Vatican II.”

1981: The syndicated TV program “Entertainment Tonight” makes its debut.

1991: The government of South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party sign a national peace pact.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. opens its airdock, home to the company’s blimps, to more than 50,000 people, the first open house since 1933.

First Lady Nancy Reagan says drug pushers should be given the death penalty if they are responsible for someone’s death.

1971: The Ohio Leather Co. at Girard will wind up its business and close the plant by Nov. 1, says President R.F. Pleatman.

John Schuller Jr., 57, superintendent of Austintown public schools, is pronounced dead of a heart attack at South Side Hospital after being stricken at home.

1961: Warren Mayor Walter Pestrak and Seventh Ward Councilman Michael Di Vincenzo file assault charges against each other following a scuffle at the Caf 422 on Youngstown Road Ext.

The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Vitus Franco, 80, a priest for 57 years and pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church for 50 years, dies in St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Three new members have been added to the full-time faculty of the William Rayen School of Engineering at Youngstown University: Harold Nels Johnson, Robert G. McNamee and Robert J. Sorokach.

1936: Jacob Kaiver, sponsor of petitions to repeal the Youngstown city charter, says city employees are defying a court order barring them from interfering with the circulating of ballot petitions.

Youngstown is again regarded as a good financial risk by bonding houses and a $537,000 bond issue attracts six bidders, with interest rates of about 23/4 percent.

The Rev. Paul W. Gauss begins his pastorate of Westminster Presbyterian Church before a congregation that filled every pew.