Years Ago

Today is Friday, Sept. 14, the 258th day of 2012. There are 108 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1712: Italian-born French astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini, discoverer of four of Saturn’s moons, dies in Paris.

1814: Francis Scott Key is moved to write a poem after witnessing how an American flag flying over Maryland’s Fort McHenry withstood a night of British bombardment during the War of 1812; the poem, “Defence of Fort McHenry,” later became the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

1901: President William McKinley dies in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him.

1941: Vermont passes a resolution enabling its servicemen to receive wartime bonuses by declaring the U.S. to be in a state of armed conflict, giving rise to headlines that Vermont had “declared war on Germany.”

1964: Pope Paul VI opens the third session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, also known as “Vatican II.” (The session closes two months later.)

1972: The family drama “The Waltons” premieres on CBS.

1982: Lebanon’s president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, is killed by a bomb.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. says he doesn’t know of anything that can be done to stop General Electric Co. from eliminating 58 jobs at its Austintown Products Plant, but warns he will lead a movement to shut down GE’s operation nationwide if it continues to locate product lines overseas.

Nearly 300 striking teachers picket the Youngstown Board of Education offices on the fourth day of their strike. Salary continues to be the key issue.

1972: Mahoning County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew R. Pecchio kills one of two robbers as they attempt to stick up an assistant manager of the Hill’s Department Store as he makes a night deposit in the Lincoln Knolls Branch of the Dollar Bank.

Mahoning County Judge Sidney J. Rigelhaupt sentences a 22-year-old California truck driver to 1 to 20 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter in the death of a 2-year-old boy while lamenting that the law did not allow him to pronounce a more severe sentence.

A 17-year-old South Side youth is hospitalized with a gunshot wound of the right thigh he received after allegedly tampering with a car on Briarwood Lane in Austintown. The owner of the car, Louis Zalac, 19, who fired the shot after three youths tampered with his car and began to flee, will not be charged, said Police Chief James Hazlett.

1962: A 73-year-old South Side woman is beaten severely by two youths who entered her Pyatt Street home seeking money. It was the second brutal attack on an elderly person on the South Side in as many nights.

Joe “The Wolf” DeCarlo, former local rackets kingpin and a member of the old Jungle Inn gang, returns to Youngstown and is quickly summoned to police headquarters. Accompanied by Atty. Eugene Fox, DiCarlo tells police he’s just visiting friends and has no intention of moving in on any racket activities.

1937: The Junior Chamber of Commerce opens its drive to sell 2,500 subscriptions for the upcoming Youngstown Symphony season at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Bert H. Lewis, 20, and Bernard Chambers, 19, both of Niles are killed when their automobile careened off Warren-Leavittsburg highway and smashed into a home.

Some 4,000 Slovaks from Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania attend the Jednoto Day at Holy Trinity Church grounds in Struthers. Joseph Stanko, president of the Mahoning-Shenango District, opened the meeting.