Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Sept. 20, the 264th day of 2012. There are 102 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1870: Italian troops take control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy.

1873: Panic sweeps the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures.

1884: The National Equal Rights Party is formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco.

1958: Martin Luther King Jr. is seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when Izola Curry stabs him in the chest. (Curry is later found mentally incompetent.)

1962: James Meredith, a black student, is blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Democratic Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith is later admitted.)

1967: The Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is christened by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in Clydebank, Scotland.

1973: In their so-called “battle of the sexes,” tennis star Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Houston Astrodome.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: About 100 people gather in an intermittent rain at Gate 14 of the old Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. to mark the 10th anniversary of the mill’s closing.

George M. McKelvey, 3rd Ward Democrat, calls on Youngstown Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro to back off, at least temporarily from a plan to install 63,000 computerized water meters.

John Green, a Youngs-town Chaney graduate, runs for 124 yards and two touchdowns in Penn State’s 41-0 victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats.

1972: Police arrest three suspects in an armed robbery of the A&P supermarket at Midlothian Boulevard and Market Street.

Two Liberty Township brothers, 24 and 20, plead innocent in Youngstown Municipal Court to manslaughter charges in the beating death of Frank Kengor Jr., 38, at his South Avenue tavern.

1962: One of seven Youngstown University coeds will be crowned Engineer’s Sweetheart: Geraldine Sfara, Dolores Swan, Virginia Sandusky, Delores Fallon. Alberta Kurowski, Judy Clausen, and Sandra De Salvo.;

A Continental Trailways bus en route from Pittsburgh to Chicago slams into the back of a truck on the Ohio Turnpike near Streetsboro, injuring 42 people.

“Get men’s haircuts or war dresses,” juvenile court officers tell wooly-headed members of a juvenile burglary gang. The youths are also told their parents will have to make full restitution.

1937: Samuel Coppola, father of 11, including Lowellville High football and basketball stars, is shot and killed by a neighbor at his home.

Youngstown police say a man has launched a private crusade against slot machines and marble boards, smashing three machines in the Betras Tavern and the Progressive Club, both on Market Street, and the OCA on Wood Street.

Mahoning County Treasurer Frank Cailor says he will cut the office staff from 28 employees to 21.