Years Ago

Today is Friday, Sept. 26, the 269th day of 2014. There are 96 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: British troops occupy Philadelphia during the American Revolution.

1789: Thomas Jefferson is confirmed by the Senate to be the first United States secretary of state; John Jay, the first chief justice; Edmund Randolph, the first attorney general.

1892: John Philip Sousa and his newly formed band perform publicly for the first time, at the Stillman Music Hall in Plainfield, N.J.

1918: The Meuse-Argonne offensive, resulting in an Allied victory against the Germans, begins during World War I.

1933: The James Hilton novel “Lost Horizon” is first published in London by Macmillan & Co. Ltd. and in New York by William Morrow & Co.

1937: The radio drama “The Shadow,” starring Orson Welles, premieres on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

1954: The Japanese commercial ferry Toya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, claiming more than 1,150 lives.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Ohio Department of Education wants Warren to cut 70 teachers and combine its vocational program with a joint vocational school to save additional money for the financially distressed system.

Two days after reading a Vindicator story that described Lordstown as the front-runner for a Toys R Us distribution center, Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro writes to the company pitching Youngstown as a site for the project.

1974: John Glenn, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, raises the specter of a “lesser standard of living” under Republican leadership, during a fund-raising party at the Maronite Center.

Youngstown Goodwill Industries does $2,000 in business on the first night of its annual book and doll sale at the Belmont Avenue store.

Mansfield Police Chief William Rein is wounded by a gunman when he interrupts a hold up at the Lexington Pharmacy.

1964: The U.S. Senate sends to the House President Johnson’s controversial program to inject $1 billion into poverty stricken areas of the 11-state Appalachian mountain region.

Four young area men are killed in two crashes, one in Trumbull County and one in Columbiana County. Dead are: Jay H. McDade, 20, of Sharon; Francis F. Bianco, 17, of Sharon; David L. Parks, 21, of East Palestine, and Harry A. Vocature, 17, of East Palestine.

1939: Atty. Nate Kaufman pleads in vain with Municipal Judge William B. Spagnola for leniency for the operator of a petty crap game, arguing the $10,000 worth of organized gambling goes on in Youngstown daily without interference.

Mrs. Andrew G. McGuire, Mahoning County chairman of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, leads a delegation of Youngstown women to the national WTCU convention in Rochester, N.Y.