Years Ago

February 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Friday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2010. There are 329 days left in the year. On this date in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a Judiciary Reorganization Bill that would have increased the number of Supreme Court justices; critics accuse Roosevelt of attempting to “pack” the court. (The measure fails in Congress.)

In 1783, Sweden recognizes the independence of the United States. In 1811, George, Prince of Wales, is named the Prince Regent due to the insanity of his father, Britain’s King George III. In 1887, Verdi’s opera “Otello” premieres at La Scala. In 1917, Congress passes, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, an immigration act severely curtailing the influx of Asians. In 1940, Glenn Miller and his orchestra record “Tuxedo Junction” for RCA Victor’s Bluebird label. In 1958, Gamal Abdel Nasser is formally nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic (a union of Syria and Egypt). In 1973, services are held at Arlington National Cemetery for Army Lt. Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty before the Vietnam cease-fire. In 1989, the Soviet Union announces that all but a small rear-guard contingent of its troops have left Afghanistan.

February 5, 1985: Les Aspin, D-Wisc., chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, opens hearings into President Reagan’s proposed $277 billion defense budget, telling Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, “before we give you billions more, we want to know what you’ve done with the trillion you’ve got.”

Liberty Township’s 20-member police force will receive raises of 7 percent and nine road crew workers will receive 5 percent raises.

February 5, 1970: David C. Murtaugh, 29, of Newton Falls, who escaped from a San Francisco jail where he was being held on suspicion of bank robbery, is recaptured in New Orleans.

Three Youngstown teenagers found delinquent in the kidnaping of former Black Muslim William Evans in August are sentenced to indeterminate terms in the Mansfield Reformatory Youth Center by Juvenile Court Judge Martin P. Joyce, who chose not to treat the three as adults.

February 5, 1960: Combining speed and surprise, four inmates in the Trumbull County Jail escape by bowling over a turnkey and fleeing out a side door before a deputy at the desk could reach for his gun.

Capt. Charles E. Prosser, a Youngstown fire fighter for 20 years, dies of a heart attack while firemen were burning an abandoned house on Orange Street.

February 5, 1935: A federal jury in Cleveland convicts three Youngstowners, Robert T. Nelson, an insurance adjuster, Dr. W.J. Wickenand and Atty. Vincent Bounpane of using the mails in an insurance fraud by filing claims for accidents that did not happen.

H.R. Packard, director of the Youngstown Chamber of commerce, presents a plea for approval of a Beaver-Mahoning River canal to the projects committee of congress in Washington.

The Public Works Administration withdraws a $206,000 grant for the Milton Dam and a $175,000 grant for sewer construction because the city of Youngstown fails to comply with the terms of a bond contract.