YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 16, the 259th day of 2015. There are 106 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1498: Tomas de Torquemada, notorious for his role in the Spanish Inquisition, dies in Avila, Spain.

1810: Mexicans are inspired to begin their successful revolt against Spanish rule by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and his “Grito de Dolores.”

1893: More than 100,000 settlers swarm onto a section of land in Oklahoma known as the “Cherokee Strip.”

1908: General Motors is founded in Flint, Mich., by William C. Durant.

1919: The American Legion receives a national charter from Congress.

1925: The Irving Berlin song “Always” (written for his future wife, Ellin Mackay) is published.

1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Training and Service Act.

1953: “The Robe,” the first movie presented in the wide-screen process CinemaScope, has its world premiere at the Roxy Theater in New York.

1965: “The Dean Martin Show” premieres on NBC-TV.

1974: President Gerald R. Ford announces a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.

1982: The massacre of between 1,200 and 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen begins in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

1994: A federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, orders Exxon Corp. to pay $5 billion in punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (the U.S Supreme Court later reduced that amount to $507.5 million).

2007: O.J. Simpson is arrested in the purported armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson later was convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.)

2010: Pope Benedict XVI begins a controversial state visit to Britain, acknowledging the Catholic Church has failed to act decisively or quickly enough to deal with priests who raped and molested children.

2014: President Barack Obama declares that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa could threaten security around the world and orders 3,000 U.S. troops to the region in emergency aid muscle.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: A 24-year-old Youngstown man who walked away from Woodside Receiving Hospital fires an estimated 50 shots from the attic of an Alameda Avenue house until Youngstown Patrolman Joseph Bonacci, who knew the man’s family, talked him out of the house.

A new amphitheater and nature trail at Shenango Reservoir campgrounds are dedicated by the Army Corps of Engineers in memory of Francis A. Lamphear Jr., a park ranger at the Mosquito and Shenango reservoirs who died in 1978.

A preliminary count after nine days of classes shows 14,862 students enrolled in the Youngstown City School District, an increase in enrollment for only the second time in 19 years.

1975: General Motors launches its long-awaited counteroffensive to imports, unveiling America’s first modern-day minicar, the Chevette.

Boardman Township trustees agree to take legal action against Youngstown to halt an increased water rate imposed on the township by the city.

A birthday celebration ends in death for Bonnie Mae Root, 19, a bride of just six weeks, who fell from a dock into 8 feet of water at Lake Milton. Her husband, the Rev. David Root, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church, dives into the water but is unable to locate her.

1965: Dr. Howard Jones greets freshmen to Youngstown University at the annual picnic, telling them that “college will be just what you make it.” Upperclassmen Jackie Fynes and Elaine Dixon conduct an orientation program.

The Youngstown Board of Control transfers the city’s rights in some Erie-Lackawanna Railroad property, opening the way for Strouss-Hirshberg to construct a 500-car parking garage on Commerce Street.

Miriam Ruth Aiken of East Palestine is assigned to the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer., helping education programs.

Col. John E. Wales and YU President Howard Jones welcome new ROTC cadets at Youngstown University’s C.J. Strouss Auditorium.

1940: Youngstown’s vice squad under its new captain, Charles Richmond, conducts raids on two private clubs, arresting five people on state liquor law violations and 65 customers of the after-hours spots.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Paul J. Reagan says a grand jury will investigate violations of election laws by Communist candidates circulating election petitions.

Youngstown district steel executives tell The Vindicator’s George R. Reiss they are beginning to fear a shortage of raw materials will create a production bottleneck.