Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, March 11, the 70th day of 2015. There are 295 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1861: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Ala.

1865: During the Civil War, Union forces under Gen. William T. Sherman occupy Fayetteville, N.C.

1888: The Blizzard of ’88, also known as the “Great White Hurricane,” begins inundating the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths.

1915: During World War I, Britain enacts a sweeping, long-distance blockade aimed at disrupting trade to and from German ports.

1935: The Bank of Canada begins operations, issuing its first series of bank notes.

1942: As Japanese forces continue to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur leaves the Philippines for Australia. (MacArthur, who subsequently vowed, “I shall return,” kept that promise more than 21/2 years later.)

1965: “I Lost It at the Movies,” a collection of film criticism by Pauline Kael, is first published by Little, Brown and Co.

1977: More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join the negotiations.

1993: Janet Reno is unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be attorney general.

2004: Ten bombs explode in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants.

2011: A magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami strike Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station.

2010: A federal appeals court in San Francisco upholds the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.

2012: Sixteen Afghan villagers — mostly women and children — are shot dead as they slept by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

2014: In an extraordinary public accusation, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., declares the CIA had interfered with and then tried to intimidate a congressional investigation into the agency’s possible use of torture in terror probes during the Bush administration.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Two supermarket chains, County Market, supplied by Charley Brothers of New Stanton, Pa., and Finast of Cleveland, have plans to build stores in the Mahoning Valley, challenging a decade of dominance by Giant Eagle.

U.S. Rep. Tom Ridge of Erie, R-21st, is presented a Gold Bulldog Award by Watchdogs of the Treasury Inc. for his efforts to cut federal spending and eliminate waste.

There are sounds of discontent reverberating through the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, where some former and present members claim conductor David Effron is changing the character of the institution, with more than 20 of the orchestra’s 70 musicians imported from Cleveland.

1975: The Mahoning County Welfare Department begins calling in some 5,000 Aid to Dependent Children recipients for face-to-face interviews as part of a quality-control program launched by the state.

The Trumbull County treasurer’s office — sealed when county commissioners launched an effort to oust Treasurer Carl N. Lupi — reopens with Lupi and 20 employees on duty as part of a compromise to end a month-long controversy that began when Lupi fired his entire staff.

Municipal Judge Leo P. Morley dismisses charges against Michael Ellinois and Larry Chinchic on grounds that the prosecution failed to substantiate charges against them of attempting to kidnap or kill Karl J. Netolicky of Lake Milton.

1965:Three members of the undefeated Boardman High basketball team are named to the Steel Valley All-Star Team. The seven MV “starters” are Bill Eckert, Jim Geller and Jim Soller of Boardman; Bill Jacobson, Fitch; Allan Chambers and Richard Buff, Brookfield and Dave Gozur, Campbell.

Harold Booher, 53, president of the Struthers Board of Education, is found dead at his gasoline service station, pinned to the floor under the wheel of a heavily-loaded plumbing truck he was repairing.

1940: Three men escape with about $3,000 in a well-planned robbery at Youngstown Hi-Speed Co., S. Meridian Road, after forcing a bookkeeper to open two safes and tying seven persons together with wire.

Nine new gasoline buses, costing about $10,000 each and built by Twin Coach Co. of Kent, go into service on various lines of the Youngstown Municipal Railway Co.

Winston Pittard, Rayen School senior, is Youngstown’s mayor for a day, after being elected by 28 Hi-Y members who took over City Hall for the annual Hi-Y civic program.