YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, March 9, the 69th day of 2016. There are 297 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1796: The future emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, marries Josephine de Beauharnais. (The couple later divorced.)

1862: During the Civil War, the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) clash for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va.

1916: More than 400 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attack Columbus, N.M., killing 18 Americans.

1933: Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, begins its “hundred days” of enacting New Deal legislation.

1945: During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers begin launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths.

1954: CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviews Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-communism campaign on “See It Now.”

1964: The U.S. Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, raises the standard for public officials to prove they’d been libeled in their official capacity by news organizations.

1965: The Rev. James Reeb, a white minister from Boston who’d gone to Selma, Ala., to show support for civil-rights marchers, was attacked by a group of white men and struck on the head; he died two days later at age 38.

1981: Dan Rather debuts as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”

1990: Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as surgeon general, becoming the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the job.

2006: Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company, DP World, relinquishes its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports.

2011: After a trip to the International Space Station, shuttle Discovery ends its career as the most-flown U.S. spaceship, returning from orbit for the last time.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs legislation abolishing the death penalty in his state and commuting the sentences of all remaining death-row inmates.

2015: In northwestern Argentina, two helicopters collide and burst into flames shortly after taking off near the remote settlement of Villa Castelli, killing both pilots and eight French nationals. (Among the victims were Olympic champion swimmer Camille Muffat, Olympic bronze-medalist boxer Alexis Vastine and pioneering sailor Florence Arthaud, who were contestants on a European reality-TV show that was being shot in the sparsely populated region.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: FBI agents arrest six people on charges of taking part in overlapping systems that have distributed cocaine and marijuana in the Alliance and Akron areas since 1988.

The Chevrolet Cavalier produced in Lordstown surpasses the Honda Accord as the auto industry’s top-selling car in the first two months of the year, in what some analysts say is a patriotic reaction to the Persian Gulf War.

Atty. Sam Amendolara of Liberty is appointed by Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to defend Kenneth Biros of Brookfield, who is charged with murdering Tami Engstrom. Biros, who is indigent, also will be defended by Trumbull County Public Defender James Lewis.

1976: William Gresko, a Chaney High School senior, is mayor for Civic Day, sponsored by the Youngstown YMCA, the United Veterans Council, city and county governments and the Youngstown Board of Education.

The only stumbling blocks to the creation of a 14-mile bikeway between New Castle, Pa., and Lowellville appear to be an effective organization of public and private enthusiasm and the raising of an estimated $30,000.

A new program for seniors, an outgrowth of the Youngstown Area Community Action Center’s Senior Outreach Program, will be launched at the Crandall Park pavilion.

1966: The Girard Board of Education puts a 3-mill levy on the ballot so the school district can meet state minimum requirements.

Research is necessary to find out why boys learn differently than girls, a research specialist tells a meeting of the Mahoning Council of the International Reading Association.

Gov. James A. Rhodes invites Youngstown University to join the ranks of Ohio’s state universities; YU President Dr. Howard Jones thanks the governor, but says the university intends to remain a private institution.

1941: The Niles High School debate team of Robert Stevens, Betty Gwen Ellis, Joe Shaker and Mary Jane Scarmuzzi, and the Rayen School team of Myron Nadler, David Garfield, Allen Hotimsky and Fred Rose will represent the area at the state tournament.

Agnes Jeannette Kean, a former Youngstown Hospital nurse, enjoys being a lieutenant in the Army Nurses Corps, stationed at Fort Knox (Ky.) Hospital.

The Hughes Memorial Organ at First Presbyterian Church of Warren, said to have cost $50,000, makes possible music programs that are seldom heard even in large cities.