Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2011. There are 93 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: The U.S. War Department establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

1907: The foundation stone is laid for the Washington National Cathedral, which isn’t fully completed until this date in 1990.

1910: The National Urban League, which has its beginnings as The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is established in New York.

1957: The New York Giants play their last game at the Polo Grounds, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-1. (The Giants move to San Francisco.)

1978: Pope John Paul I is found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

2005: John G. Roberts Jr. is sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Strouss Building Associates takes possession of the Strouss-Kaufmann’s department store building and parking garage in downtown Youngstown.

Mahoning Valley elected officials say the loss of the General Revenue Sharing program, which has distributed $83 billion to local governments over 14 years, will hurt local budgets.

Richard D. Hughey, longtime councilman representing Youngstown’s 1st Ward, dies of a heart attack at his home.

1971: Gail Storm, a physical education major from Boardman, will reign as queen of Muskingum College’s 50th anniversary homecoming.

A Warren brother and sister, 31/2 and 21/2 years old, are in fair condition in Trumbull Memorial Hospital after sampling an LSD tablet that deputies say the tots found near their Orchard Avenue home.

1961: The Economic and Business Foundation of New Wilmington honors three educators during a dinner at the Shenango Inn in Sharon: Marcus McEvoy, superintendant of Niles schools; Clair Book, retired principal of New Castle High School, and Milton E. Mollenkopf, retired principal of Warren Harding High School.

About 45 people, both backers and opponents, attend the first meeting of the Lake Erie-Ohio River Waterway Police Committee at the Youngstown Country Club.

Cynthia Elizabeth Schmidt of Cincinnati is Ohio State University’s head varsity cheerleader, the first coed to hold that job in the school’s history.

1936: The Campbell Board of Education may call on state education authorities to mediate a dispute between the superintendent and some board members over the reinstatement of a high school teacher whose transfer sparked a student strike.

Youngstown Police Chief Carl Olsen warns that more than half of Mahoning County’s motorists still lack a drivers license and face arrest when the license deadline passes.