Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, March 21, the 81st day of 2011. There are 285 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1556: Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake for heresy.

1685: Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, Germany.

1804: The French civil code, or the “Code Napol on” as it was later called, is adopted.

1806: Mexican statesman Benito Juarez is born in the state of Oaxaca.

1871: Journalist Henry M. Stanley begins his famous expedition in Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.

1907: U.S. Marines arrive in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.

1940: A new government is formed in France by Paul Reynaud, who becomes prime minister, succeeding Edouard Daladier.

1960: About 70 people are killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fire on black protesters.

1962: The first Taco Bell restaurant is opened by Glen Bell in Downey, Calif.

1963: The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay is emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

1965: More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. begin their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

1972: The Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, rules that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: A janitor for Austintown High School, Howard E. Gigee, 56, dies of Legionnaires disease and school officials are trying to make sure he did not acquire the disease through the high school’s cooling or ventilation system.

Boardman Police Chief William Walter says the growth of the township has overwhelmed his department of 40 officers to the point that it is no longer able to provide residents with the kind of service to which they are accustomed. He recommends adding 10 to 15 officers.

Msgr. Donald J. Reagan, a composer and Youngstown native who holds a doctorate from Catholic University of America, will celebrate the 40th anniversary of his ordination at Blessed Sacrament Church in Warren.

Mahoning Valley state legislators support a change in the way schools are funded, but most are not optimistic about it happening any time soon.

1972: Dan V. Brott, president of Teamsters Local 377 since 1963, will succeed John J. Angelo as secretary-treasurer of the Youngstown local.

The State Controlling Board approves $6.9 million for construction of a technical and community college building on the campus of Youngstown State University.

The Youngstown Area Board of Realtors Inc. urges City Council to repeal a new dwelling occupancy ordinance and enact a measure requiring the permit only for dwellings either condemned or in danger of being condemned.

1962: A 200-pound safe stolen Feb. 22 from the Robinwood Lane Elementary School is found ripped open beside a creek in Mill Creek Park Drive.

A select Senate committee on water resources headed by Sen. Robert S. Kerr, D-Okla., picks the Lake Erie-Ohio River Canal as the No. 1 navigation project in the United States.

Republic Steel Corp. will consolidate four of its manufacturing units, including its Truscon Division, under a single general manager, Paul Bruhn.

1937: Trumbull County Sheriff Roy Hardman is trying to negotiate a peaceful end to a sit-down strike by 600 workers at the Ohio Leather Plant. Trumbull County judges have ordered them removed.

Speaking to a group of 300 at the Hotel Ohio in downtown Youngstown, Congressman Braswell D. Deen of Georgia suggests that the Supreme Court of the United States would be better served by some laymen being appointed to it rather than all lawyers and judges.

Mahoning County commissioners allow county offices and agencies $2.6 million to operate in 1937, an increase of $146,000 over 1936.