Years ago

February 6, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, Feb. 6, the 37th day of 2010. There are 328 days left in the year. On this date in 1952, Britain’s King George VI dies; he is succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

In 1756, America’s third vice president, Aaron Burr, is born in Newark, N.J. In 1778, the United States wins official recognition from France with the signing of a Treaty of Alliance in Paris. In 1788, Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1899, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the U.S. Senate. In 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, is born in Tampico, Illinois. In 1933, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the so-called “lame duck” amendment, is proclaimed in effect by Secretary of State Henry Stimson. In 1959, the United States successfully test-fires for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral. In 1978, Muriel Humphrey takes the oath of office as a United States senator from Minnesota, filling the seat of her late husband, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

February 6, 1985: An attempt by BATF agent Wayne Lovan goes bad when the men from whom he was supposed to buy a machine gun decide to rob him instead. After taking the money Lovan had brought for the gun buy, the men are apprehended by BATF agents and Austintown police.

The Air Force has decided that women can serve as launch-control officers for its most advanced strategic nuclear missiles, but only by going down into its underground bunkers with other females.

February 6, 1970: The state board of education orders that classrooms be made smaller and some workshops moved in plans for the new Mahoning County Joint Vocational School.

The Citizens Executive Advisory Committee named by the Trumbull County commissioners is recommending that the commissioners immediately adopt and put into effect a half-percent permissive sales tax for a fixed period and earmarked for the elimination of the existing deficit only.

A list of 95 Youngstown Board of Education noncertificated employees living outside the city limits is given by Law Director Nicholas Manos to 2nd Ward Councilman Herman “Pete” Starks, who has objected to leniency in the residency requirement for local government employees.

February 6, 1960: Dave Kimmel, who gained some 2,500 yards as a halfback at Youngstown University, signs with the Buffalo Bills of the new American Football League, but has until May 1 to make a decision on whether he will keep his job as Jackson Milton grid coach.

Four Youngstown firemen are shaken up when their fire truck collides with an auto at Oak Hill and Falls Avenue while hurrying to an early morning alarm at a Market Street filling station where a motorist crashed into a gasoline pump.

February 6, 1935: W.S. Metcalfe, 81, former judge of the court of appeals, who maintained an office in the Terminal Building in Youngstown in recent years, dies at the home of a daughter in Cleveland. He had practiced law for 56 years.

Ninety-nine of the 318 regular officials and employees of 10 departments in Mahoning County receive restoration of salary cuts that ranged from 10 percent to 25 percent.