Today is Monday, March 21, the 81st day of 2016. There are 285 days left in the year.

Today is Monday, March 21, the 81st day of 2016. There are 285 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1556: Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake for heresy.

1685: Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, Germany.

1804: The French civil code, or the “Code Napoleon,” is adopted.

1925: Tennessee Gov. Austin Peay signs the Butler Act, which prohibits the teaching of the Theory of Evolution in public schools. (Tennessee repealed the law in 1967.)

1935: Persia officially changes its name to Iran.

1945: During World War II, Allied bombers begin four days of raids over Germany.

1946: The recently created United Nations Security Council sets up temporary headquarters at Hunter College in The Bronx, N.Y.

1956: “Marty” wins best picture at the Academy Awards; its star, Ernest Borgnine, is named best actor. Anna Magnani wins best actress for “The Rose Tattoo.”

1960: About 70 people are killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fire on black protesters.

1963: The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay is emptied of its last inmates and is closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

2006: President George W. Bush predicts American forces would remain in Iraq for years and that it will be up to a future president to decide when to bring them all home. But defying critics and plunging polls, Bush declares, “I’m optimistic we’ll succeed.”

2011: Syrians chanting “No more fear!” have a defiant march after a deadly government crackdown failed to quash three days of mass protests in the southern city of Deraa.

2015: President Barack Obama, in an interview with The Huffington Post, says he takes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “at his word” for saying an independent Palestinian state would never co-exist with Israel as long as he was in office, yet another sign of the strained relations between longtime allies.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Niles Service Director William Thorp says he has ordered 300 water meters costing $17,000 for a project that has not yet been approved by city council, a move that Law Director Terrence Dull says may violate competitive bidding law.

Elaine Hairston, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, says Gov. George Voinovich’s $26.8 billion budget will hurt the quality of higher education in the state and force colleges and universities to cut services to students.

Lerner’s, the last vestige of a national clothing retailer in downtown Youngstown, says it will close its store at 132 W. Federal St. on April 6. The company, which has 860 outlets, has been in downtown Youngstown since 1946.

1976: Trooper Marilyn Reber, the only woman in the New Castle State Police New Castle Station, says she’d like to see more female troopers but stresses that she’s “not a women’s libber” and doesn’t believe in hiring quotas.

The nation’s automakers – General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors – faced with tough labor negotiations, are looking at “mutual aid pacts” similar to those entered into by major airlines, as a counter to union power.

Brookfield High School wins its first Class AA Regional Tournament championship, beating Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, 69-68, in Canton. Tom Volarich sank a free throw with seven seconds left, giving Brookfield a three-point lead, allowing Larry Seafert’s Warriors to hold on for a one-point victory.

1966: Three Pittsburgh youths are arrested in the murder of Greenville, Pa., police officer Rodney Wentling, 22, who had been on the force for three months. Wentling was gunned down after confronting the boys after hours at a used-car lot.

The Warren Harding Panthers will go to Columbus after winning the regional basketball championship in Cleveland, beating Cleveland East, 61-58.

About 5,000 11th- and 12th-graders in Youngstown schools will receive free chest X-rays in a mobile unit operated by the Mahoning County Tuberculosis and Health Association.

1941: John C. Bash, 61, of Youngstown dies of injuries suffered two days earlier in a train crash near the Ravenna Arsenal. About 60 men remain hospitalized.

Mahoning County commissioners, faced with a fiscal crisis, due to the mounting cost of relief for the poor, meet with city officials to discuss what part of the cost should be borne by the municipalities.

Mrs. Robert Coffey is chairwoman of the pageant involving 800 Girl Scouts from throughout the area that will take place at the South High Fieldhouse.