Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Sept. 9, the 253rd day of 2012. There are 113 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: The second Continental Congress makes the term “United States” official, replacing “United Colonies.”

1850: California becomes the 31st state of the union.

1919: Some 1,100 members of Boston’s 1,500-man police force go on strike. (The strike is broken by Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge with replacement officers.)

1926: The National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) is incorporated by the Radio Corp. of America.

1932: The steamboat Observation explodes in New York’s East River, killing 72 people.

1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction.

1971: Prisoners seize control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, N.Y., beginning a siege that ends up claiming 43 lives.

1976: Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong dies in Beijing at age 82.

1986: Frank Reed, director of a private school in Lebanon, is taken hostage; he is released 44 months later.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Striking Youngs-town teachers set up picket lines at city schools and Superintendent Emanuel Catsoules says that attendance is so sparse that classes will likely be cancelled for the time being.

Canfield Township trustees approve a $5 license plate fee to fund the road department. Canfield City Council rejects the tax.

1972: A Cleveland veteran and an East Orwell woman receive kidney transplants in Cleveland from Airman John W. Crawford Jr., 18, of Mercer, Pa., who died in South Side Hospital of injuries suffered in an Aug. 30 traffic accident near Mercer.

One bandit holds a Wells Fargo guard at bay with a gun while another cleans out the safe and three cash registers, escaping from the Sparkle Market at 823 Elm St. with an undetermined amount of money.

1962: A ball of flames seriously burns four children on the Ferris wheel at the Pymatuning Community Fair in Jamestown, Pa. The children were among a group of 24 from the St. Paul Children’s Home who were on an outing to the fair. Others received less serious bruises and strains jumping from the Ferris wheel to avoid the flames that came from an exploding gasoline can.

Fringe benefits, which rarely show up in workers’ paychecks, are costing Youngstown district employers about $100 million to $125 million a year, writes Vindicator industrial editor George Reiss, about 20 percent of the district payroll.

Miss Ohio, Jacquelyn Jeanne Mayer, a 20-year-old Northwestern University coed from Sandusky, is crowned Miss America in Atlantic City.

1937: A three-state search has been launched for three members of the notorious Brady Gang, suspected in the shooting death of tavern owner Jim Tisone during a daring daylight robbery in Wilson Avenue. The gang led by Alfred Brady is wanted in the murder of an Indiana police sergeant.

The wide open operation of downtown bookie joints suffers a setback as Youngstown police raid two W. Federal Street establishments and arrest two men, confiscating run-down sheets, wall sheets and betting pads.

Anna M. Campana of Niles wins the women’s golf championship for 1937 at the Mahoning Country Club. Loretta Deibel is runner-up.