YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, Sept. 22, the 266th day of 2016. There are 100 days left in the year. Autumn arrives at 10:21 a.m. Eastern time.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: During the Revolutionary War, Capt. Nathan Hale, 21, is hanged as a spy by the British in New York.

1792: The first French Republic is proclaimed.

1862: President Abraham Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863.

1911: Pitcher Cy Young, 44, gains his 511th and final career victory as he hurled a 1-0 shutout for the Boston Rustlers against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1949: The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

1975: Sara Jane Moore attempts to shoot President Gerald R. Ford outside a San Francisco hotel, but misses. (Moore served 32 years in prison before being paroled Dec. 31, 2007.)

1996: Actress-singer Dorothy Lamour dies at her North Hollywood home at age 81.

2011: A group of European researchers at the world’s biggest physics lab in Switzerland claims to have measured a subatomic particle, a neutrino, traveling faster than the speed of light, a finding that challenged Einstein’s theory of relativity (however, the results were refuted by other scientists).

2015: Pope Francis arrives from Cuba on the first visit of his life to the United States; President Barack Obama, his wife and daughters personally welcome the pontiff at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: A dwindling number of high school graduates in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys spurs Youngstown State University to increase its efforts to recruit students from outside the area.

The Rayen School will celebrate its 125th anniversary in Stambaugh Auditorium.

Tailback Leo Hawkins runs for 176 yards and scores three touchdowns to lead the Youngstown State University Penguins to a 57-22 victory over Morgan State before 9,313 fans at Stambaugh Stadium.

1976: Residents of Wildwood Drive and Ewing Road win the first round in their zoning battle to block expansion of the Borden Dairy plant at 6330 Market St.

A no-strings-attached $1,000 addition has been announced to the $5,000 reward for information in the 1974 triple slaying of the Benjamin Marsh family in their Turner Road home in Canfield.

John J. Augenstein, superintendent of Youngstown Diocesan Schools, says elementary enrollment is down 3.8 percent, compared with 2 percent in area public schools, possibly due to an increase in tuition.

1966: Professional golfer Doug Sanders will help launch the Youngstown Area United Appeal campaign for 1966, which has a goal of $1.7 million.

The Trumbull County Child Welfare Board strongly urges Trumbull County commissioners to approve construction of a new children’s home at the present fairgrounds on Elm Road.

Niles Councilman Anthony Corea urges political, community and industrial leaders of the four-county area to join in support of the proposed Lake Erie to Ohio River canal.

1941: Rabbi I.E. Philo announces that he will retire after serving Rodef Sholom Temple for 30 years.

The Rev. Roland A. Luhman of the First Reformed Church makes an appeal for American unity during a flag-raising at the Blackburn Home for the Aged in Poland.

The safe at Fitch School in Austintown is blown open by burglars who escaped with $50.