Years Ago

February 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Monday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2010. There are 319 days left in the year. This is Presidents’ Day. On this date in 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blows up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain.

In 1820, American suffragist Susan B. Anthony is born in Adams, Mass. In 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court. In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escapes an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara is executed more than four weeks later. In 1942, the British colony Singapore surrenders to the Japanese during World War II. In 1961, 73 people, including an 18-member U.S. figure skating team en route to Czechoslovakia, are killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. In 1965, Canada’s new maple-leaf flag is unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa. In 1989, the Soviet Union announces that the last of its troops have left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention.

February 15, 1985: A growing number of Trumbull County elected officials say they will resist efforts by county commissioners to force them to make large scale layoffs in their departments.

David Stockman, White House budget director, who said many family farmers will be forced out of business because “that is the way a dynamic economy works” is taken to the woodshed by his mother. Carol Stockman tells a radio station her son may not realize the family farm he grew up on in Michigan could go under.

February 15, 1970: Youngstown’s Central Area Development Association supports Mayor Jack C. Hunter in his request for monetary aid to keep the Youngstown Transit Co. buses running.

All General Motors 1971 model cars will be able to operate on lead-free 91 octane gas, says Edward N. Cole, GM president.

Eleven-year-old Patty Williams, a 5th grader at Boardman Center Middle School, is in North Side Hospital suffering with intractable sneezing for almost six straight weeks. Dr. Leonard Green says the cause of the rare condition is unknown but will be treated with medication.

February 15, 1960: A 10-inch snow and high winds that create 3-foot drifts close 31 school districts in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.

Frederick A. Schlueter, an 18-year-old Youngstown University freshman, is killed when he falls into a clay grinding machine at the New Galilee, Pa., factory of the Negley Fire Clay Co.

The Youngstown law department rules that police cannot legally remove keys that are left in unlocked cars. Police Chief Peter Venorsky wanted his men to confiscate the keys and issue citations when the owners came to the police station to claim them.

February 15, 1935: After meeting with Police Chief Leroy Goodwin, Youngstown Mayor Mark E. Moore orders a crackdown on vice in the city. A shake-up of the police department awaits Goodwin’s investigation of alleged payoffs.

East End merchants say they are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually with the closing of the Cedar Street bridge and say a new bridge could be built for $300,000 and would give work to local steel plants.