Years Ago

February 26, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Friday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2010. There are 308 days left in the year. On this date in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signs a measure establishing Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from exile on the Island of Elba. In 1870, an experimental air-driven subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit, opens in New York City for public demonstrations. In 1929, President Calvin Coolidge signs a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. In 1945, a midnight curfew on night clubs, bars and other places of entertainment is set to go into effect across the nation. In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that Britain has developed its own atomic bomb. In 1987, the Tower Commission, which probed the Iran-Contra affair, issues its report, which rebukes President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff. In 1993, a bomb built by Islamic extremists explodes in the parking garage of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people.

February 26, 1985: Without saying the name of his predecessor, James A. Traficant Jr., Mahoning County’s new sheriff, Edward Nemeth, says he has taken over a department in disarray, one that lacks written rules and policies and has almost 300 reserve deputies, many lacking documentation.

Atty. Henry A. DiBlasio is the highest paid among 20 members of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant’s staff, earning $50,000 a year as the administrative assistant.

A 28-year-old Custer Avenue man is being held in Youngstown City Jail after Detectives Harry Wollet and William Blanchard interrupted a robbery at the North Side branch of the Dollar Savings and Trust Co.

February 26, 1970: Sixth Ward Councilman William Bryant suggests the city-operated ambulance be replaced by private ambulance companies because of city losses in operating the ambulance.

Operations at the Allied Chemical Corp.’s Poland Avenue plant will be terminated April 1. About 40 employees at the plant distill coal tar to make pitches, creosote oils and road tar.

February 26, 1960: Carol Heiss wins the gold medal in women’s figure skating and her American teammate, Barbara Ann Roles, wins bronze at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley.

Youngstown factory workers earned an average of $122 weekly, highest of any Ohio factory workers, the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation reports. The average in Columbus was $99 and in Cincinnati, $98.

February 26, 1935: A discharged 22-caliber long rifle cartridge is found near where traces of blood were found during the search for Frank Suhovecky, missing 13-year-old boy.

Dr. F.M. Walters Jr., noted scientist, is named physical metallurgist of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. Laboratory. He was formerly associate physicist of the Bureau of Standards in Washington and director of metallurgical research at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh.