Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Today is Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2010. There are 317 days left in the year. On this date in 1897, the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convenes its first meeting, in Washington.
In 1801, the U.S. House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr becomes vice president. In 1809, the Ohio legislature votes to establish Miami University in present-day Oxford. (The school opens in 1824.) In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic is rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, S.C., by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley, which also sinks. In 1865, Columbia, S.C., burns as the Confederates evacuate and Union forces move in. (It’s not clear which side set the blaze.)
February 17, 1985: The Ohio General Assembly is considering a proposal to eliminate the five “calamity days” that are primarily used when school districts close because of inclement weather.
Youngstown officials call on U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., who is on the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, to introduce legislation to appropriate $6 million for repairs to the Lake Milton Dam.
Livingstone Bramble pounds out a close win in a 15-round bout over Youngstown’s Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini to retain the World Box Association lightweight championship Bramble took from Mancini in June.
February 17, 1970: Maurice L. Stonehill, president of the Jeanette Glass Co., which took over the Royal China Co. in Sebring, says a new plant that will cost $6 million to $8 million will be built to replace the plant destroyed by fire.
Robert Ditzler, an 8th grader at St. Dominic School, wins the school science fair with a stereo record player and radio he built “from scratch.”
The City Charter Revision Committee discusses at length the merits of creating councilman-at-large positions.
February 17, 1960: Atty. Paul Van Such tells the Cornersburg Improvement Club that “Local participation in bug betting, horse playing and pinball machines feeds the huge crime syndicate that corrupts our morals and destroys respect for the law. “
A 9-year-old East Side boy who had his Y membership only two weeks drowns in the downtown YMCA pool, the first drowning ever at the Y. John Petretich is pronounced dead at South Side Hospital.
Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, D-Youngstown, engineers the $543 million Interior Department money bill through the U.S. House in one hour and one minute.
February 17, 1935: Youngstown police launch a crackdown on vice ordered by Mayor Mark Moore, arresting eight men, most on liquor violations, and two women for prostitution.
The body of a 3-year-old Conneaut girl, Rita Margaret Lent, missing since November, is found in a muddy country lane a mile and a half from her home. Ashtabula Coroner C.C. Webbster says the condition of the body would indicate that it had not been exposed to the elements nearly as long as the girl had been missing.
Lt. Calvin Bolster, repairs officer on the airship Macon, tells a naval inquiry board that failure of the ship’s upper fin caused it to crash into the Pacific Ocean. Bolster is formerly of Youngstown.
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