YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, March 20, the 79th day of 2015. There are 286 days left in the year. Spring arrives at 6:45 p.m. EDT today.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1727: Physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton dies in London.

1815: Napoleon Bona-parte returns to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.

1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” is first published in book form after being serialized.

1899: Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, N.Y., becomes the first woman to be executed in the electric chair as she is put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her stepdaughter.

1922: The decommissioned USS Jupiter, converted into the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, is recommissioned as the USS Langley.

1933: The state of Florida electrocutes Giuseppe Zangara for shooting to death Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak at a Miami event attended by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, the presumed target, the previous February.

1952: U.S. Senate ratifies, 66-10, the Treaty of Peace with Japan.

1969: John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

1974: Britain’s Princess Anne is the target of a kidnapping attempt near Buckingham Palace; the would-be abductor, Ian Ball, is captured.

Former NBC News anchorman Chet Huntley, 62, dies at his Montana home.

1985: Libby Riddles of Teller, Alaska, becomes the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.

1990: Singer Gloria Estefan suffers a broken back when a truck rear-ends her tour bus on a snow-covered highway in Pennsylvania. (Surgeons implanted titanium rods to stabilize her spine, and Estefan was able to make a comeback after months of intensive physical therapy.)

1995: In Tokyo, 12 people are killed and more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the deadly chemical sarin are leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.

1999: Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain become the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop as they float over Mauritania past longitude 9 degrees west. (They landed safely in Egypt the next day.)

2005: A visibly frustrated Pope John Paul II makes a brief but silent appearance at his Vatican apartment window after missing his first Palm Sunday Mass in 26 years as pontiff.

Liz Johnson becomes the first woman to advance to the championship match of a Professional Bowlers Association tour event, but loses by 27 pins to Tommy Jones in the final of the PBA Banquet Open in Wyoming, Mich.

2010: Pope Benedict XVI sends an unprecedented letter to Ireland apologizing for chronic child abuse within the Roman Catholic church, but he fails to calm anger of many victims.

Thousands of protesters — many directing their anger squarely at President Barack Obama — march through the nation’s capital to urge immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: At age 81, Alfred Suppan of Struthers is ready to return for Aut Mori Grotto Circus’ 26th run as Soupy the clown.

A U.S. District Court jury in Cleveland awards $2.7 million from Gelman Scientific Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., to James P. Lawson, 31, of Canfield, who was burned when a spark ignited a stainless steel funnel in which he was analyzing aircraft fuel at the Youngstown Air Force Reserve Base.

A Jefferson couple files suit seeking $750,000 from the Trumbull County Children Services saying they sought to adopt a normal baby through the agency but received a child with hearing loss.

1975: General Motors Corp. announces that it will boost its production at its Lordstown plants, recalling an additional 925 furloughed employees, in addition to 1,900 originally set for recall.

Vincent Doria, assistant Mahoning County welfare director, asks Youngstown City Council for help for city welfare recipients facing increasing utility bills.

George Karsnak, a millwright for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., is awarded a 1975 Gremlin automobile as the company’s “Pro of the Year” during a dinner at the Maronite Center.

1965: Gov. James A. Rhodes speaks at the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce Early Bird Breakfast on the topic “Ohio Looks Ahead.”

Canfield High School presents “My Fair Lady” for two nights in the school auditorium. Leading roles are played by Rusty Ensign, Karrie Sue Blunt and Liz Diggels.

1940: Aubrey W. Williams, National Youth Administrator, arrives in Youngstown for an inspection of district NYA activities.

Foster Memorial Presbyterian Church is sold to City Savings & Trust Bank at sheriff’s sale for $56,000, two thirds of its appraised value, to satisfy debts of the church that have reached $72,000. Pastor C.C. Tevis says services will be held at Cleveland School until a new building is found or built.

A crowd of 3,000 at the Rayen-Wood Auditorium sees eight title fights in the Knights of Columbus Golden Gloves Tournament. George “Sonny” Horne, winner in the 147-pound class, is chosen “most prominent boxer.”