Today is Wednesday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2006. There are 312 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2006. There are 312 days left in the year. On this date in 1732, the first president of the United States, George Washington, is born at his parents' plantation in the Virginia Colony.
In 1819, Spain cedes Florida to the United States. In 1879, Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a 5 cent store in Utica, N.Y. In 1889, President Cleveland signs a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union. In 1892, "Lady Windermere's Fan," by Oscar Wilde, is first performed, at London's St. James's Theater. In 1924, Calvin Coolidge delivers the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House. In 1935, it becomes illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House. In 1973, the United States and Communist China agree to establish liaison offices. In 1980, the United States Olympic hockey team upsets the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-3. (The U.S. team goes on to win the gold medal.) In 1984, a 12-year-old Houston boy known publicly only as "David," who'd spent most his life in a plastic bubble because he had no immunity to disease, dies 15 days after being removed from the bubble for a bone-marrow transplant. In 1987, pop artist Andy Warhol dies at a New York City hospital at age 58.
February 22, 1981: A new job-creating industrial plant to save valuable resources and ease expensive pollution control problems may be on its way to Youngstown. The project involves the Duval-Pritchard Process for reclaiming fuel oils and iron-rich mill scale from steel mill sludge.
A federal court approves a $25 million settlement for the economic claims of people living around the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.
Mahoning County is spared a $3,000 bill for painting the county jail when the owner and employees of Joseph Painting Contractor Inc. donate their time and equipment to give the jail a face-lifting. Joseph is a friend and former classmate of Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr.
February 22, 1966: Youngstown's Elizabeth Hartman receives an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in "A Patch of Blue." She is the only American nominee. The others are Julie Andrews, Julie Christie and Simone Signoret.
Construction on the huge General Motors plant in Lordstown, which is being rushed to completion, comes to a halt when plumbers and steamfitters walk off the job and about 1,500 other construction workers honor the picket lines.
U.S. Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg says he is confident the U.N. Security Council will be helpful in promoting a settlement of the Vietnam war. But Goldberg says the United States never held the view that the United Nations was the appropriate agency to conduct actual peace negotiations.
February 22, 1956: Between 75 and 85 percent of the victims of heart attacks recover completely and are able to return to a full work load, Dr. Joseph B. Vander Veer, Philadelphia heart specialist, says during an interview of WFMJ-TV in Youngstown.
Aureo Moralis Esquillin, 28, who agreed to interpret for a friend in a dispute with a landlord, is shot and killed by the landlord at 57 11th St. in Campbell.
The announced plan to build a new General Motors plant at Lordstown increases the need for a southerly section of Youngstown's arterial highway system and Youngstown City Council will push a $3 million bond issue for the city's inner belt.
February 22, 1931: The Council Rock Improvement Club and Italian-American Civic Association petition council in opposition to a plan that would shift two thirds of the Second Ward into the First Ward.
Final citizenship papers are granted to 91 aliens by Judge Erksine Maiden Jr. in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. All but 14 in the class of 105 passed the examination.
Folks in Alliance, East Liverpool and Steubenville will get their news of the electrocution of Mrs. Irene Shrader and Glenn Dague at Pennsylvania's Rockview Prison out of the air. Vindicator's Extras, hot off the press, will be rushed by speedy airplanes to those towns.