Today is Tuesday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2008. There are 344 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2008. There are 344 days left in the year. On this date in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalizes abortions using a trimester approach.

In 1901, Britain’s Queen Victoria dies at age 81. In 1908, Katie Mulcahey becomes the first woman to run afoul of New York City’s just-passed ban on females smoking in public. (Declaring, “No man shall dictate to me,” Mulcahey serves a night in jail after being unable to pay a $5 fine.) In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson pleads for an end to war in Europe, calling for “peace without victory.” (By April, however, America also is at war.) In 1922, Pope Benedict XV dies; he is succeeded by Pius XI. In 1938, Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” is performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, N.J. In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces begin landing at Anzio, Italy. In 1968, the fast-paced sketch comedy series “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” premieres on NBC-TV. In 1973, former President Lyndon Johnson dies at age 64. In 2003, countering blunt talk of war by the Bush administration, France and Germany defiantly state they are committed to a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.

January 22, 1983: Twenty-seven of 30 local agencies of the Youngstown Area United Way feel the pinch of the Mahoning Valley’s tight economy as allocations are cut for 1983.

Neighbors report that five or six Youngstown police cruisers serenaded Mayor George Vukovich at his Cooper Street home at 5 a.m. with sirens shrieking and lights blinking, an apparent protest of layoffs in the department. The mayor’s daughter said he slept through the commotion.

January 22, 1968: Two labor unions claiming to represent over 160 employees at the Mahoning County Engineer’s office go on strike demanding recognition for their unions.

The Mahoning County Democratic Executive Committee unanimously chooses Nicholas P. Bernard for another four-year term on the Board of Elections during a meeting at the Tod Hotel.

Atty.. Thomas a. Beil, 43, former Mahoning County prosecutor, dies in South side Hospital after suffering a stroke. Elizabeth Reese Barbour, 81, daughter of “Bonesetter” Reese, dies in Sleigh Bell Residence of complications of old age.

January 22, 1958: A bomb beneath the hood of a 1955 Cadillac turns the car into a mass of twisted metal and injures three men behind a Poland Avenue gambling joint. John Shuller, 40,  of Lowellville and Mike Fedchina, 41, of the Hillcrest Motel, Rt. 422, are in South Side Hospital. Edward Tabus, 26, of Youngstown escaped serious injury.

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles flies to the Middle East where he will give fresh assurance to the Baghdad Pact nations of American support for their resistance to Soviet pressures and Communist penetration.

January 22, 1933: The resurvey of the Shenango and Mahoning rivers from the Ohio River to Struthers for the purposes of charting a navigable canal will take 90 days. It is estimated that it would take six years to create the canal.

The Youngstown Hospital Association says it has seen a 30 percent decline in regular hospital patients and an increase in clinic patients, creating a financial crisis for the hospital. The county continues to refuse to pay $15,000 that was requested to offset care of the indigent.