Years Ago

Today is Monday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2010. There are 333 days left in the year. On this date in 1960, four black college students begin a sit-in protest at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., which refuses to serve them; similar protests spring up across the South.

In 1861, Texas votes to secede from the Union. In 1943, one of America’s most highly decorated military units of World War II, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almost exclusively of Japanese-Americans, is authorized. In 1959, men in Switzerland reject giving women the right to vote by a more than 2-1 referendum margin. (Swiss women gain the right to vote in 1971.) In 1968, during the Vietnam War, South Vietnam’s police chief (Nguyen Ngoc Loan) executes a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini receives a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ends nearly 15 years of exile. In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members.

February 1, 1985: President Reagan’s 1986 budget proposal would slash programs for cities, including revenue sharing, mass transit and the Small Business Administration.

Beth Platt, a Warren Western Reserve High sophomore receives top honors from the Warren Optimist Club for her essay on “Freedom, Our Most Precious Heritage. “

Realtors from Youngstown and Warren join the effort to attract the Saturn Corp. to the Mahoning Valley by initiating a letter-writing campaign aimed at schoolchildren.

February 1, 1970: Despite a growing determination to do something about pollution in the Mahoning Valley, the Youngstown Metropolitan district appears to be low on the federal government’s totem pole for effective remedial measures, writes Vindicator Politics Editor Clingan Jackson.

Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes tells newsmen that Ohio taxpayers “have had it … they’re fed up with students destroying other people’s property.”

The Dollar Savings & Trust Co. will build its 13th facility in the 5200 block of Mahoning Avenue, Austintown, says A.I. Kidston, president.

February 1, 1960: The Rt. Rev. Thomas H. Cashmore, Anglican lord bishop of Dunwich, England, preaches at Sunday morning services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Youngstown.

Youngstown Police Chief Peter Venorsky asks the law department to decide whether police can legally remove keys from unlocked parked cars and issue citations when motorists report to the station to pick up their keys.

Atty. Sidney Rigelhaupt is re-elected president of the Legal Aid Society of Youngstown.

February 1, 1935: Steel production in the Mahoning Valley remains at 60 percent of capacity, with some signs of near-term improvement.

Youngstown Water Commissioner Dan Parish says new pipe added to the city’s water system is responsible for the temporary discoloration that has housewives in some areas of the city complaining about their laundry being ruined.

More than 1,500 fight fans watch an exciting semi-final round of Tom Carney’s 10th annual amateur boxing matches at the Rayen-Wood Auditorium.