Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Sept. 1, the 245th day of 2012. There are 121 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1715: Following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France dies four days before his 77th birthday.

1807: Former Vice President Aaron Burr is found not guilty of treason.

1902: The Georges Melies short film “Le Voyage dans la lune” (A Trip to the Moon) opens in France.

1923: The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama are devastated by an earthquake that claims some 140,000 lives.

1932: New York City Mayor James J. “Gentleman Jimmy” Walker resigns following charges of graft and corruption in his administration.

1939: World War II begins as Nazi Germany invades Poland.

1942: U.S. District Court Judge Martin I. Welsh, ruling from Sacramento, Calif., on a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Fred Korematsu, upholds the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1951: The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, the ANZUS treaty.

1961: The Soviet Union ends a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia.

A TWA Lockheed Constellation crashes shortly after takeoff from Chicago’s Midway Airport, killing all 78 people on board.

1972: American Bobby Fischer wins the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigns before the resumption of Game 21.

An arson fire at the Blue Bird Cafe in Montreal, Canada, claims 37 lives.

1983: Two hundred and sixty-nine people are killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

1987: Peace demonstrator S. Brian Willson loses his legs when he is hit by a train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California while protesting weapons shipments to Central America.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: The Sharon Steel Corp. says it will give employees two more weeks to consider ratifying a new contract that would save the company $8 million a year.

Quick action by three Struthers sewage plant employees, Robert Gentile, John Suszcynski and Barney Sciortino, is credited with saving seven people from injury in a fire they spotted at 74 State St.

Warren Mayor Daniel Sferra tells city council that the mayor’s salary of $45,150 should be increased by 112 percent over four years. Councilman George Lockwood has proposed a one-year freeze followed by 2.5 percent raises in each of the next three.

1972: White steam has replaced black smoke at Sharon Steel Corp.’s Kaldo basic oxygen furnace at the Roemer Works, thanks to a $3.75 million emission control system unveiled by company officials.

Larry Lanterman of Leetonia and Kathy Ann Shepherd of Greenford are crowned 4-H king and queen at the Canfield Fair.

1962: The Canfield Fair has a record second day with an attendance of 23,602.

Deputy Sheriff Don Corey is fired at twice by bandits using a 12 gauge shotgun saving $10,000 in receipts from the Hill’s Department Store in Boardman Plaza. The bandits fled after Corey, who was working as an off-duty security guard, returned fire.

The Youngstown Chamber of Commerce hosts 450 Mahoning County public and parochial school teachers at its “Welcome to New Teachers” breakfast at the Hotel Pick Ohio.

1937: Ben Agler, insurance company executive and outstanding Republican and civic leader in Youngstown, dies at his home of a heart ailment. He was 48.

Robert Harter, 35, of 1032 E. Market St., Warren, is kidnapped and robbed of his wallet after giving a ride to a hitchhiker, the third such robbery in the area in recent weeks.

A final decision is predicted by fall by the board of engineers for rivers and harbors in Washington, D.C., on the feasibility of a proposed waterway from Lake Erie to the Ohio River via the Beaver-Mahoning canal route.