YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, September 14, the 257th day of 2015. There are 108 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1715: Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon, credited with advances in the production of champagne, dies in Hautvillers, France, at age 76.

1814: Francis Scott Key is inspired to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” after witnessing the American flag flying over the Maryland fort after a night of British bombardment during the War of 1812; the poem later became the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

1861: The first naval engagement of the Civil War takes place as the USS Colorado attacks and sinks the Confederate private schooner Judah off Pensacola, Fla.

1901: President William McKinley dies in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him.

1927: Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan dies in Nice, France, when her scarf becomes entangled in a wheel of the sports car she is riding in.

1944: The Great Atlantic Hurricane passes close to North Carolina and Virginia before heading up the northeastern U.S. coast; nearly 400 people died, most at sea.

1954: The Soviet Union detonates a 40-kiloton atomic test weapon.

1964: Pope Paul VI opens the third session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, also known as “Vatican II.” (The session closed two months later.)

1975: Pope Paul VI declares Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint.

1982: Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, dies at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before; Lebanon’s president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, is killed by a bomb.

1985: The situation comedy “The Golden Girls” premieres on NBC.

1994: On the 34th day of a strike by players, Acting Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announces the 1994 season was over.

2010: Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers detained by Iran, is freed on $500,000 bail after 410 days in prison.

2014: Hillary Rodham Clinton, making her return to Iowa for the first time since the 2008 presidential campaign, implores Democrats to choose shared economic opportunity over “the guardians of gridlock.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The Youngstown Area United Way campaign officially opens with the highest goal ever, $3.3 million. Robert Wagmiller is campaign chairman.

Members of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 65 in Liberty Township mull filing an unfair labor practices complaint against township trustees who have declined to put a safety-service levy on the ballot.

Polls show Republican George Voinovich with a 14 percent lead over Democrat Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr. Voinovich even has the lead in the Democratic Mahoning Valley.

1975: Phillip H. Smith, president and chairman of the board of Copperweld Steel Corp., tells a congressional subcommittee that the company is prepared to fight takeover attempts by a French holding company led by Baron Guy De Rothschild.

David R. Benson of Queens, N.Y., a 1964 graduate of Youngstown East High School, is named an assistant treasurer of Chase Manhattan Bank.

Youngstown State University’s new coach Bill Narduzzi unveils the veer offense in the Penguins’ football opener against Central State in Rayen Stadium. YSU wins 10-0.

1965: The 512-acre Lordstown Military Reservation off state Route 45 would be an ideal site for a new tri-county airport, says Robert Hagan, Trumbull County commissioner.

Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Harold S. Rickert commends Youngstown students for improved conduct during weekend night football games.

Rosalind Clinkscale is elected president of the Youngstown NAACP Youth Council. Other officers are Brenda Hudson, Catherine Gray, Annie Burris, Ruth Daniel, Thelma Parris, Venita Daniel and Bernadine Hudson.

Carolyn Fitzsimmons of New Waterford wins an Ohio State Fair trophy for her “inside the home” 4-H demonstration.

1940: Under direct orders from Mayor William B. Spagnola to “break the grip of rackets on Youngstown,” Capt. Charles R. Richmond takes charge of the city’s vice squad.

Joseph Kalman of 1501 Manhattan Ave., Youngstown, a local steel mill worker, is denied citizenship by Mahoning Common Pleas Judge J.H.C. Lyon after Kalman refuses to take the oath of allegiance to the United States on the grounds that it would be against his religion. Kalman identified himself as a member of a Pentecostal sect.

Meat prices in the Youngstown area increase by as much as 30 percent during August Bacon went from 15 to 20 cents a pound, while hamburg increased from 17 to 211/2 cents and lean pork from 27 to 35 cents.