Years Ago

February 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2010. There are 324 days left in the year. On this date in 1967, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, is ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopt it.

In 1763, Britain, Spain and France sign the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years’ War. In 1840, Britain’s Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1841, Upper Canada and Lower Canada are proclaimed united under an Act of Union passed by the British Parliament. In 1942, the former French liner Normandie capsizes in New York Harbor a day after it caught fire while being refitted for the U.S. Navy. In 1949, Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” opens at Broadway’s Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman. In 1959, a major tornado tears through the St. Louis, Mo., area, killing 21 people and causing heavy damage. In 1962, the Soviet Union exchanges captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

February 10, 1985: State Rep. Michael J. Verich has prepared legislation that would offer a sweeping tax abatement plan to entice General Motors to build its Saturn auto plant in the Mahoning Valley.

Bishop James W. Malone maintains that it is possible for the Catholic Church to support revolution against an existing government without running counter to Pope John Paul II’s condemnation of liberation theology.

The Salem High School Band is selling calendars to raise part of the $50,000 needed for the band to make a trip to Disney World.

Lisa Whelchel, better known as Blair Underwood on NBC’s “Facts of Life,” will appear in a gospel concert at Youngstown’s Maronite Center.

February 10, 1970: Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes calls on the Ohio Water Pollution Control Board to postpone strict standards that are being proposed for improving the water quality of the Mahoning River.

Famed consumer advocate Ralph Nader is expected to deliver a hard-hitting indictment of business and industry when he speaks at the sixth annual YSU Artist Lecture series.

Professional safecrackers burn open a safe in the Fosterville Post Office and flee with $4,000 in stamps and about $100 in cash.

The doors of the district census office are officially opened by Willis C. Smith, district manager of the 1970 federal census in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

February 10, 1960: Mayor Frank R. Franko recommends a 1-mill increase in the city’s income tax to finance 7 percent pay increases for city employees.

The old Watson Airport on Jacobs Road at McKelvey Lake, one of the district’s earliest airfields where much local aviation history was made, is being sold by brothers Joseph and Karam Sheban for $20,000 to the Youngstown Board of Education as a site for a new elementary school and playground.

February 10, 1935: J.C. Argetsinger, general counsel of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., emphatically denies testimony of state Sen. Ralph Seidner in the Locke Miller deposition-taking hearing that Argetsinger had asked him to withdraw from the congressional race in 1932 when he opposed Congressman John Cooper in the Republican primary.

John Lindsay, 13, blows the tips off three fingers while playing with dynamite caps at his Early Road home. He is the brother of Nancy Ann, 3, and Lois, 8, sisters who where killed with two playmates by a drunken driver in August.

Unborn babies indirectly “smoke” along with their mothers, according to a study of the babies’ heart action announced at Antioch College.