Years Ago

Today is Saturday, June 9, the 161st day of 2012. There are 205 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

A.D. 68: The Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, ending a 13-year reign.

1870: Author Charles Dickens dies in Gad’s Hill Place, England.

1909: Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22, sets out from New York in a Maxwell DA on a journey to become the first woman to drive across the United States. (Ramsey and three female companions arrive in San Francisco on Aug. 7.)

1911: Carrie A. Nation, the hatchet-wielding temperance crusader, dies in Leavenworth, Kan., at age 64.

1949: Georgia Neese Clark is unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the first female Treasurer of the United States.

1972: Heavy rains trigger flooding in the Black Hills of South Dakota; the resulting disaster leaves at least 238 people dead and $164 million in damage.

1973: Secretariat becomes horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 25 years by winning the Belmont Stakes.

1978: Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints strike down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.

1986: The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Dr. Victor Wan-Tatah, professor of philosophy and religious studies at Youngstown State University and a native of Cameroun, West Africa, says the West’s negative view of Africa stems from a lack of knowledge of the continent’s rich culture and civilization, which predated colonialism.

Trumbull County Sheriff Richard Jakmas says short staffing is making it difficult to continue to operate the Trumbull County Jail safely.

The State Controlling Board unanimously approves a $1.5 million, low-interest loan for the New Avanti Motor Co.’s proposed Youngstown plant.

1972: Four new security guards are sworn in by Trumbull County Sheriff Robert Barnett to provide 24-hour protection at the Youngstown Municipal Airport: Robert Timlin, Jeffrey Hatchner, Richard Wilkerson and Paul Milson.

Four area men are among graduates of the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo.: Robert H. Kitchen Jr. , Leo E. Krauth, Gregory J. Macali and William B. Smiley.

Carol Cline, 25, is killed and two people injured when an out-of-control car crashes into the porch of her home on South Street in Warren.

Janet Jones, daughter of Vindicator Photographer Lloyd Jones, and Robert Yosay, both Wilson High graduates and freshmen at Ohio State University, were high bidders at an auction for a luncheon date with OSU President Novice G. Fawcett as part of spring week activities.

1962: Youngstown Municipal Court Judges Don L. Hanni and John J. Leskovynsky subpoena Patrolman Dan Maggianetti and WKBN-TV Newsman Dick Minton to determine if criticism of the court should result in contempt of court charges.

Matina Cummings, 7, receives more than 100 stitches after running through a sliding glass door while playing at the Black Oak Lane home of a friend, Cheryl Rockney.

1937: Factory-trained experts recondition 100 pianos a year at the Youngstown factory of Yahring Rayner Co., which has been in operation for a decade.

A number of Sheriff Ralph Elser’s special strike deputies are nursing bruises and black eyes after they clashed with CIO pickets outside an E. Federal Street store where the men were buying new uniforms. Three pickets were arrested.

Ten Niles and 23 Girard beer dealers file suit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to overturn Sheriff Roy S. Hardman’s ban on the sale of 3.2 beer.