YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2015. There are 293 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1781: The seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, is discovered by Sir William Herschel.

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis signs a measure allowing black slaves to enlist in the Confederate States Army with the promise they would be set free.

1901: The 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, dies in Indianapolis at age 67.

1925: Tennessee’s General Assembly approves a bill prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin Peay signed the measure on March 21.)

1933: Banks in the U.S. begin to reopen after a “holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1947: The Lerner and Loewe musical “Brigadoon,” about a Scottish village which magically reappears once every hundred years, opens on Broadway.

1954: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu begins during the First Indochina War as communist forces attack French troops, who would be defeated nearly two months later.

1964: Bar manager Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, 28, is stabbed to death near her Queens, N.Y., home; the case gains notoriety over the supposed reluctance of Genovese’s neighbors to respond to her cries for help.

1975: The first Chili’s restaurant opens in Dallas by entrepreneur Larry Lavine.

1980: Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announces he is stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., finds the company not guilty of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto.

1995: Two Americans working for U.S. defense contractors in Kuwait, David Daliberti and William Barloon, are seized by Iraq after they stray across the border; sentenced to eight years in prison, both were freed the following July.

2013: Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina is elected pope, choosing the name Francis.

2005: Pope John Paul II is released from the hospital and returns to his Vatican apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

Robert Iger is named to succeed Michael Eisner as chief executive of The Walt Disney Co.

2010: At least 30 people are killed in a series of Taliban suicide bombings in Afghanistan in what appears to be a failed attempt to free inmates from a Kandahar prison.

The Vatican denounces what it calls aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandal of pedophile priests in his German homeland.

With the biggest fight crowd in the U.S. in 17 years cheering him on at Cowboys Stadium, Manny Pacquiao dominatesJoshua Clottey from the opening bell to retain his welterweight title.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The Lordstown Board of Education adopts a policy stating that corporal punishment will only be used as a last resort.

Jim Jones, who finished the regular season at Canfield High School with a 35-1 record, wins the state wrestling championship in the 135-pound division. He is only the second Cardinal wrestler to win a state title; Joe Peet won the 160 crown in 1988.

Brookfield High School announces it will be providing free bus transportation for students to the state tournament girls basketball game.

1975: Gov. James A. Rhodes’ $12.2 billion biennial budget contains $11.2 million for operating funds and renovations.

Gail Wright, a senior at Rayen School and president of student council, is one of 394 winners in the 11th national Achievement Scholarship Program for Outstanding Negro Students.

A report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says Ohio is the leading source of guns used in crimes in New York, Detroit, Atlanta and New Orleans.

1965: Miss Pauline Jones, Ohio Avenue, prominent Youngstowner active in civil defense and many charitable activities, is killed in a plane crash while visiting in New Zealand.

Franklin Butler, Ashe-ville, N.C., is severely injured in an auto crash while returning from the Asheville Airport. Butler was formerly on the staff of WFMJ and more recently worked as an English master at a boys’ school.

John A. Logan, president of Ajax Magnethermic in Warren, announces the appointment of James K. McLaughlin, director of foreign operations, and Milton Schaefer as manager of manufacturing.

1940: Youngstown College coeds would rather spend an hour chatting with Hitler than with Clark Gable — just for the chance to “tell him where to get off” — a poll conducted by the campus newspaper, The Jambar, reveals.

James Bennett, former Poland High basketball star now on the Cornell varsity team, is selected at forward on the Eastern Intercollegiate All-Star team chosen by the Associated Press.

Youngstown Police Chief John W. Turnbull says arrangements have been made to use the Ohio National Guard armory shooting range and city police officers will be required to participate in target practice to improve their proficiency with a pistol.