Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2011. There are 102 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1870: Italian troops take control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy.

1873: Panic sweeps the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures.

1884: The National Equal Rights Party is formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco; the convention nominates Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood for president.

1958: Martin Luther King Jr. is seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when Izola Curry stabs him in the chest. (Curry is later found mentally incompetent.)

1962: Black student James Meredith is blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith is later admitted.)

1973: In their so-called “battle of the sexes,” tennis star Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: The McDonald Welding & Machine Co. loses a $5 million U.S. Navy contract to build mobile facilities vans to a Pennsylvania company that bid $1.8 million more for the job. U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. files a formal complaint with the Navy.

Speaking at the old Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. hospital in Campbell, Ohio Gov. Richard F. Celeste unveils five new job-creation initiatives.

During a campaign stop in Cleveland, former Gov. James A. Rhodes calls for phasing out the tangible personal property tax on business machinery and equipment to bring jobs back to Ohio.

1971: No problems are reported in Youngstown public school classrooms despite an edict from the Youngstown Education Association calling on teachers to avoid performing any nonclassroom duties.

The worst multiple-car accident since Interstate 80 opened involves 25 vehicles and injures eight people at the Emlenton Bridge, seven miles east of Grove City, Pa.

1961: Atty. Harry N. Savasten, GOP candidate for Youngstown mayor, says morale is low in the police department and if elected he will search the ranks for a “fighting, decent and honest police chief.”

Two Youngstown University students, Melvin Hunter and Roberta Martz, are robbed by two hoodlums as they entered their car behind First Christian Church after evening classes.

Walter H. Paulo, the new president of the Isaly Dairy Co. of Youngstown says the chain of 220 stores in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania will be expanded.

1936: The Vindicator awards a contract for $100,000 to the Heller-Murray Co. to expand The Telegraph building, which The Vindicator acquired in July and which will become the company’s headquarter after the work, which will take about a year, is completed.

A painting of the “Madonna, Child and St. John” by Bernardino Luini, a 14th century pupil of Leonardo Da Vinci, will be exhibited by the Butler Art Institute during the Eucharistic Congress of the Cleveland Diocese.