Years Ago

Today is Monday, Sept. 19, the 262nd day of 2011. There are 103 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1796: President George Washington’s farewell address is published.

1881: The 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, dies 21/2 months after being shot by Charles Guiteau; Chester Alan Arthur becomes president.

1911: British author Sir William Golding (“Lord of the Flies”) is born in Cornwall.

1957: The U.S. conducts its first contained underground nuclear test in the Nevada desert.

1959: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, visiting Los Angeles, reacts angrily upon being told that, for security reasons, he wouldn’t get to visit Disneyland.

1960: Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in New York to visit the United Nations, angrily checks out of the Shelburne Hotel in a dispute with the management; Castro ends up staying at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem.

1985: The Mexico City area is struck by a devastating earthquake that kills at least 9,500 people.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Mahoning County Prosecutor Gary Van Brocklin is preparing foreclosures for 30 vacant properties in Youngstown that are part of a new land bank program.

New tax breaks in a federal tax overhaul bill must survive a vote in Congress or North Star Steel Co. may not follow through on its plans to reopen the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.’s Brier Hill Works.

U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. says he is willing to submit to a drug test like the one taken by his Republican opponent, Dr. James H. Fulks.

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will close its North and Struthers branch libraries indefinitely because of asbestos in areas accessible to the public.

1971: A three-day antiques festival-sale sponsored by the Women’s Guild of the Youngstown Symphony Society is held in the main lobby and mezzanine of the Symphony Center downtown.

Lillian B. Stambaugh is re-elected president of the Monday Musical Club and Mrs. William B. McKelvey is re-elected 1st vice president.

1961: Speaking at the Columbiana County Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Beaver Local High School, Gov. Michael V. DiSalle describes his job as partly one of a referee, keeping a balance between contending forces.

The Trumbull county grand jury issues five subpoenas and as many as 30 more are expected in its investigation of bids received and awarded in the building of Warren’s sewage disposal system.

Liberty Township police department’s modern radio communications system will go into full-time operation, giving residents what Police Chief John Bluedorn calls instant service and protection.

1936: The special tax committee of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce endorses approval of a 3.6-mill renewal levy for operation of Youngstown city schools.

An estimated 50,000 rats have been killed in Youngstown in recent weeks with the distribution of modern poisons approved by the Health Department.

Youngstown is preparing for as many as 200,000 visitors from Ohio and western Pennsylvania for the Cleveland Diocesan Eucharistic Congress that will be held at Stambaugh Auditorium.