YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, Sept.25, the 268th day of 2015. There are 97 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1513: Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and sights the Pacific Ocean.

1690: One of the earliest American newspapers, Publick Occurrences, publishes its first – and last – edition in Boston.

1890: President Benjamin Harrison signs a measure establishing Sequoia National Park.

1957: Nine black students who’d been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., because of unruly white crowds are escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

1978: A Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego, killing 144 people.

1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Federal and local investigators are sifting through evidence after a bomb explodes at the home of Mahoning County Prosecutor James A. Philomena at 778 Ottawa Drive near Mill Creek Park, shattering windows and causing structural damage to the foundation.

Edward DeBartolo Jr. of Boardman, owner of the San Francisco 49ers, urges the U.S. House to reject a bill sponsored by a Texas congressman that would allow states to conduct state lotteries based on the outcome of professional sporting events.

Veteran Youngstown radio personality Dan Ryan recalls when he was a disc jockey at WBBW and was given a one-hour morning talk show as an experiment. That led to a 25-year career on morning talk radio, most recently at WKBN.

1975: Officials of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. have their first open house in 14 years of the company’s 250-acre tractor tire testing center near Columbiana.

Robert Itts, executive vice president of Saramar Aluminum Co., Warren, is installed president of Youngstown B’nai B’rith Men’s Chapter 399 during dinner at Temple El-Emeth.

A resolution creating a special City Council Committee investigating alleged morale problems in the Youngstown Police Department under Chief Donald G. Baker is adopted on a 6-1 vote, with Councilman William R. Shranko, R-4th, casting the lone dissenting vote.

1965: Mahoning Valley’s polo team plays for the Crum Stable consolation cup of the Chad Johnston Memorial Polo Tournament.

Dr. Elizabeth McLaughry, a graduate of Westminster College and the Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia, who founded the Overlook Sanitorium in New Wilmington, Pa., at the turn of the century, celebrates her 100th birthday.

Philip J. Monaghan, General Motors vice president, is the speaker at the dedication of GM’’s Packard Electric Division Plant 12 and Research Center.

East High School whips Woodrow Wilson, 28-8, and Rayen routs North, 32-0, in City Series play.

1940: Byron Wade, clerk of the board of elections, asks Youngstown Superintendent Pliny H. Powers and County Superintendent C.B. Rayburn to enlist area teachers to man registration booths for military conscription on Oct. 16.

James Ferraro, 54, arrested in a Youngstown “hobo jungle” for selling marijuana cigarettes to a Cleveland police officer who was in the city investigating Cleveland’s “torso murders,” is sentenced to three years in prison and ordered deported to his native Spain after serving his sentence.

Marksmanship medals are awarded to 18 policemen by Chief John W. Turnbull for attaining the highest scores among 118 officers.