Years Ago

Today is Friday, Sept. 16, the 259th day of 2011. There are 106 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1810: Mexicans are inspired to begin their revolt against Spanish rule by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and his “Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores).”

1893: More than 100,000 settlers swarm onto a section of land in Oklahoma known as the “Cherokee Strip.”

1908: General Motors is founded in Flint, Mich., by William C. Durant.

1910: Bessica Medlar Raiche of Mineola, N.Y., makes the first accredited solo airplane flight by a woman in the United States.

1919: The American Legion receives a national charter from Congress.

1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Selective Training and Service Act.

Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas is elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1953: “The Robe,” the first movie presented in the widescreen process CinemaScope, has its world premiere in New York.

1982: The massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children by Israeli-allied Lebanese militiamen begins in west Beirut’s Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Gov. Richard F. Celeste visits the former Strouss Building in downtown Youngstown and is told that Phar-Mor Discounts and Bank One of Eastern Ohio will be the first major tenants.

Warren Board of Education President Anthony Payiavlas says every phase of school operations will be under review for cost effectiveness as the district faces the loss of $1.2 million in tax revenue from bankrupt LTV Steel Corp.

Joseph T. Piening, national commander of AMVETS, advises Youngstown district veterans to flood the Veterans Administration with letters requesting an outpatient clinic in Youngstown.

1971: Weston O. Johnstone is named executive vice president of the Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Gilligan administration considers plans to reduce the state income tax and increase the cigarette tax by 1 cent a pack.

1961: Youngstown police answer a burglary call at the Century-Loblaw Co. at Fifth Avenue and Grant Street and capture two men in the store and a third hiding in a car in the parking lot.

Mahoning County’s five common pleas judges order county commissioners to remodel the fourth floor of the courthouse, expand the law library and build new offices for juvenile court probation officers.

1936: A choir of 1,400 children from parochial schools throughout Youngstown meet at St. Columba Church to practice for the children’s mass that will open the first Cleveland Diocesan Eucharist Congress at Stambaugh Auditorium.

The Youngstown Planning Commission will consider a proposal to ban beer gardens from residential and commercial A districts by zoning.

A final decision on whether Mahoning County voters will use voting machines at the November election will be given in several days by the Board of Elections.