YEARS AGO FOR SEPT. 21

Today is Thursday, Sept. 21, the 264th day of 2017. There are 101 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1792: The French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy.

1897: Responding to a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, the New York Sun runs its famous editorial by Francis P. Church that declares, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.”

1938: A hurricane strikes parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming some 700 lives.

1948: Milton Berle debuts as permanent host of “The Texaco Star Theater” on NBC-TV.

1957: The legal mystery-drama “Perry Mason,” starring Raymond Burr, premieres on CBS-TV.

1970: “NFL Monday Night Football” debuts on ABC-TV as the Cleveland Browns defeat the visiting New York Jets, 31-21.

1989: Hurricane Hugo crashes into Charleston, S.C. (the storm was blamed for 56 deaths in the Caribbean and 29 in the United States).

1996: John F. Kennedy Jr. marries Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, Ga.

2007: The Rev. Rex Humbard, whose televangelism ministry once spanned the globe, dies in Florida at 88.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992:Canfield residents on Kings Drive say a well drilled in Canfield Township is slanted to access natural gas under city homes.

While on a ride-along with Warren police, the Rev. Charles Crumbley, pastor of St. James Church in Warren, helps save a young woman who was standing on the railing of a bridge over Youngstown Road.

Five year-old Liang Lu comes from China to join his father, Hai Lu, in Warren and is beginning to learn English in the Roosevelt Elementary kindergarten class of Joanne Luhaney-Thomas.

1977: It is revealed that while Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. officials were publicly criticizing the increasing use of imported steel, the company has been buying industrial equipment from Japanese and German suppliers.

Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter says the city will freeze hiring and hold spending to a minimum to reduce as much as possible the effect of the cutbacks by Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.

Beaver Township police say David Hamilton, 28, was found shot to death in his South Avenue Extension home, and it is feared his wife, Linda, was kidnapped by an intruder. .

1967: The Federal Aviation Agency is sharply criticized for mix-ups that could delay construction of a new control tower and resurfacing of the main runway at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Annexation of the remainder of Coitsville Township to Youngstown is suggested by Mayor Anthony B. Flask as a solution to long-range sewer problems to the east of the city.

Benjamin M. Hayek Jr., a senior pre-medicine student at Youngstown State University, is appointed by the university publications board as editor-in-chief of The Jambar, the university’s student newspaper.

1942: About 25,000 Youngstown public school students are enlisted in the campaign to collect scrap to feed the area’s steel mills.

There’s a coffee shortage, but Youngstown wholesalers, who are getting only 65 percent of last year’s orders, say Youngstowners should be able to get that morning cup for a long time.

A reception opens the 23rd annual supreme session of the Daughters of Makanna (Caldron) in honor of their leader, Mrs. George James of Youngstown.