YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, March 11, the 71st day of 2016. There are 295 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1888: The Blizzard of ’88, also known as the “Great White Hurricane,” begins inundating the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths.

1861: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Ala.

1865: During the Civil War, Union forces under General William T. Sherman occupy Fayetteville, N.C.

1935: The Bank of Canada begins operations, issuing its first series of bank notes.

1942: As Japanese forces continue to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines for Australia. (MacArthur, who subsequently vowed, “I shall return,” kept that promise more than 21/2 years later.)

1954: The U.S. Army charges that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., and his subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, have exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee. (The confrontation culminated in the famous Senate Army-McCarthy hearings.)

1977: More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join the negotiations.

1993: Janet Reno is confirmed unanimously by the Senate to be attorney general.

2004: Ten bombs explode in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants.

2006: Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic is found dead of a heart attack in his prison cell in the Netherlands, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial for orchestrating a decade of conflict that had killed a quarter of a million people; he was 64.

2011: A magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami strike Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signs a measure to eliminate most union rights for public employees, a proposal that had provoked three weeks of loud, relentless protests.

2012: Sixteen Afghan villagers – mostly women and children – are shot dead as they sleep by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

2015: The police chief of the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson resigns in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Two Canadian companies plan to build a $6 million snack-food production plant in the Salt Springs Industrial Park on Youngstown’s West Side to be operated under the name Amexon. It will employ 50 to 75 people to start.

Mahoning Valley Sanitary District directors reject a proposal by Mill Creek Park to allow supervised nature walks on the 5,500-acre preserve surrounding the Meander Reservoir.

Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro proposes a $7.50-per-month sanitation fee for every city household, which would generate about $2.8 million a year.

1976: The Environmental Protection Agency believes that Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., Republic Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. will be unable financially to fully implement 1983 water-quality standards for the Mahoning River.

Mahoning County Probate Judge Charles P. Henderson names Thelma Gerthing of Southern Boulevard to the vacancy on the Youngstown Board of Education. Board members could not agree on a candidate.

Kenneth P. Hadley of Boardman is selected 1975 “Pro of the Year” by the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.

1966: Spring-quarter enrollment is up by about 136 students at the Salem Branch of Kent State University.

Dr. Dominic Bitonte is elected president of the Corydon Palmer Dental Society.

The Boardman Board of Zoning Appeals approves a building permit for a $750,000 convalescent home on Glenwood Avnue, about a mile south of Boardman Plaza.

1941: Youngstown City Council blocks a motion by Councilman Edward Haseltine that Fifth Avenue be extended north, cutting through the municipal golf course.

Mrs. Alphonsus Foley, 36, mother of nine children, is shot to death while walking on Gladstone Street toward her mother’s house at 351 Bryson St.

Fear of sabotage to the Milton Dam prompts the Ohio Senate to approve legislation authorizing Mahoning County sheriff deputies to patrol the entire lake, regardless of county lines.

Republic Steel Corp. publishes a directory of all its plants. Prominent display is given to an aerial photo of of the Youngstown plant that covers 285 acres and employs 8,000 workers. It is the largest producer of electric-weld pipe in the nation.