Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Sept. 19, the 262nd day of 2013. There are 103 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: The first Battle of Saratoga is fought during the Revolutionary War; although the British forces succeed in driving out the American troops, the Americans prevail in a second battle the following month.

1796: President George Washington’s farewell address is published.

1881: The 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, dies 21/2 months after being shot by Charles Guiteau; Chester Alan Arthur becomes president.

1982: The smiley emoticon is invented as Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman proposes punctuating humorously intended computer messages by employing a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis as a horizontal “smiley face.” :-)

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: In an incident said to be muscle-flexing by a local drug gang, three Warren police officers are fired upon but not hit as they sat in two cruisers in the Highland Terrace housing project.

The Ungaro administration promotes Patrolmen Langdon Riley and Joseph Fergus to detective despite allegations that the action violates a consent decree addressing advancement of minority officers.

1973: Mayor Jack C. Hunter signs and sends to Columbus an application for $335,000 in Title VII funds to establish a nutrition program for low-income elderly in Mahoning County.

Trumbull County voters defeat a proposed joint vocational school for the fifth time, by a vote of 7,477 to 6,831.

1963: Assistant city engineer J. Phillip Richley acknowledges that there have been many complaints about the city’s $1.2 million sidewalk program, but that few have been found to be justified.

Youngstown Planning Director Donald Wagner tells City Council that a new study will be undertaken to resolve disputes over a proposed redesign of Youngstown’s Central Square loop.

Six youths are reported beaten in three separate after-school brawls, Youngstown police say. Two of the boys required hospitalization.

1938: Police and hospital authorities are attempting to identify a young woman found unconscious in the W. Federal bus terminal, who has remained unconscious for more than 36 hours at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

A number of Youngstown College classes will meet in Butler Art Institute because of overcrowding of the college building as a result of unusually heavy enrollment in both day and night classes.

After pleading guilty in Mercer County court, Mrs. Frances Hoffman Day is given a life sentence and William Redfoot 10 to 20 years in Western Penitentiary for their part in the ax murder of Howard Sidley, a Grove City service station owner in March 1935.