YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2015. There are 102 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1519: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships to find a western passage to the Spice Islands.

1884: The National Equal Rights Party is formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco; the convention nominates Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood for president.

1947: Former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia dies.

1958: Martin Luther King Jr. is seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when Izola Curry stabs him in the chest. (Curry was later found mentally incompetent.)

1962: James Meredith, a black student, is blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Democratic Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith was later admitted.)

1973: Singer-songwriter Jim Croce dies in a plane crash near Natchitoches, La.; he was 30.

1984: A suicide car bomber attacks the U.S. Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing at least 14 people, including two Americans and 12 Lebanese.

The sitcoms “The Cosby Show” on NBC and “Who’s the Boss?” on ABC premiere.

1999: Lawrence Russell Brewer becomes the second white supremacist to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas. (Brewer was executed on Sept. 21, 2011.)

2000: Independent Counsel Robert Ray announces the end of the White- water investigation, saying there is insufficient evidence to warrant charges against President and Mrs. Clinton.

2005: The number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq tops 1,900.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: A convoy of about 100 slow-moving trucks chugs across I-80 into Ohio, causing traffic tie-ups and resulting in seven citations in Girard by the Ohio Highway Patrol. The drivers are protesting skyrocketing fuel costs and legislation that would outlaw radar detectors.

A federal bankruptcy judge in Erie, Pa., postpones a hearing on whether a Canadian company can buy Sharon Steel Corp.’s Brainard Strapping Division. A bankruptcy trustee says the delay effectively kills the deal.

Seeking to avoid the death penalty, cult Leader Jeffrey Lundgren tells a Lake County jury that he killed Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three daughters because he is a prophet and God commanded him to do it. Lundgren said as a true prophet, he should be spared.

1975: Dr. Charles A. Glatt, an Ohio State University professor and nationally known desegregation consultant, is shot to death in the federal building in Dayton, where he was drafting an integration plan for Dayton schools.

The body of a bound and gagged man who had been severely beaten is found dumped behind the Days Inn off Route 46 and I-80 in Austintown Township.

Christine States, a 17-year-old senior at Badger High School, is named queen of the 12th annual Hartford Apple Festival.

1965: The State Highway Department recommends that the Boardman Expressway (Interstate 680) connect with the Ohio Turnpike about 2 miles east of the Route 7 Youngstown Interchange.

Niles McKinley Red Dragons dominate play in their 28-0 victory over Youngstown Woodrow Wilson before 5,500 fans at Riverside Stadium. Cardinal Mooney converts to fumbles to touchdowns in a 22-0 victory over Warren JFK.

Charles H. Brant and Alice Street receive trophies for their play during the season at the East Palestine Country Club.

1940: “We must guard our democracy more than we have since the United States became a first-class nation 40 years ago, or we are not going to remain a world power for long,” U. S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan tells members of American Legion Post 13 in Struthers.

The G.F Howard Construction Co. submits the lowest bid for excavation of earth at the municipal airport in Vienna, at 13.4 cents per cubic yard. The M. DeBartolo Co., which had the original contract, bid 14.5 cents a yard.

Daughters of members of the British War Relief Society in Youngstown will be downtown dressed in traditional British garb, collecting donations toward an ambulance for Great Britain’s war wounded.