Today is Wednesday, Jan. 30, the 30th day of 2008. There are 336 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 30, the 30th day of 2008. There are 336 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, the Tet Offensive begins during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launch surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals; although the Communists are beaten back, the offensive is seen as a major setback for the U.S. and its allies.

In 1649, England’s King Charles I is beheaded. In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is born in Hyde Park, N.Y. In 1883, James Ritty and John Birch receive a U.S. patent for the first cash register. In 1933, Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany. In 1933, the first episode of the “Lone Ranger” radio program is broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit. In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi is shot and killed by a Hindu extremist. In 1958, “Sunrise at Campobello,” a play by Dore Schary about Franklin D. Roosevelt’s struggle against polio, opens on Broadway with Ralph Bellamy as FDR. In 1962, two members of “The Flying Wallendas” high-wire act are killed when their seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit. In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers are shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what becomes known as “Bloody Sunday.” In 2005, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Robert McCartney, 33, is killed after intervening in a pub fight between Irish Republican Army members and a friend of his.

January 30, 1983: Fewer than 30 percent of Youngstown’s 115,436 residents are paying the city income tax.

Ohio’s debt to the federal government for loans used to pay unemployment benefits will soon exceed $2 billion and higher unemployment taxes on employers appear inevitable.

The Youngstown school district’s report to the U.S. Office of Civil Rights reveals that that during 1981-82 black students bore the brunt of paddlings in city schools. Black students make up 53 percent of the enrollment, but were 70 percent of the students paddled and 56 percent of those suspended.

January 30, 1968: The rain-swollen Mahoning River begins flooding low level areas in Warren and is expected to reach two to three feet above flood stage.

Navy Lt. James Blaine Connaughton, 26, of North Lima, is killed when his TAF-9J Cougar jet plane crashes while landing at the Naval Air Station at Chase Field, Beeville, Texas. He received the Detwiler Award as North Lima High’s outstanding graduate in 1959 and was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. reports 1967 net income of $39.7 million, equal to 3.72 per common share on sales and revenue of $737 million.

January 30, 1958: An unemployed 20-year-old North Side man who had come to be called the “Ivy League” bandit is captured by traffic patrolman Angelo Kissos after two more morning grocery store robberies.

The Ohio Supreme Court agrees to review the contempt of court conviction of Vincent DeNiro, Youngstown’s kingpin gambler and racketeer. DeNiro was sentence to 30 days in jail after he was found inside his restaurant and gambling joint after he had been ordered to close it.

First Ward Councilman Michael J. McCullion continues to press the law department to clear the way for declaring the seat of missing 6th Ward Councilman John J. Tobin Jr. vacant immediately.

January 30, 1933: Two armed and masked bandits tie up a night watchman at the Nathan Rosenblum & Co. warehouse in Sharon and load up two trucks with five tons of sugar.

Leslie Loose, 5-year-old daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. J. Loose of Poland Manor, is fatally burned when her clothes catch on fire while playing with her kitten in the basement. It is unclear how her clothing caught fire.

Alliance and Youngstown police are studying the possibility that three men held in Youngstown on an extortion charge may be linked to a group responsible for the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Sam DePalma of Alliance in 1929.