Years Ago

February 27, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, Feb. 27, the 58th day of 2010. There are 307 days left in the year. On this date in 1960, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeats the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. (The U.S. team goes on to win the gold medal.)

In 1807, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born in Portland, Maine. In 1861, in Warsaw, Russian troops fire on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland; five marchers are killed. In 1922, the Supreme Court, in Leser v. Garnett, unanimously upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the right of women to vote. In 1933, Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, is gutted by fire. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, uses the fire as justification for suspending civil liberties. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, is ratified. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupy the hamlet of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. (The occupation lasts until May.) In 1979, Jane M. Byrne confounds Chicago’s Democratic political machine as she upsets Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party’s mayoral primary. (Byrne goes on to win the election.) In 1991, President George H.W. Bush declares that “Kuwait is liberated, Iraq’s army is defeated,” and announces that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight, Eastern time.

February 27, 1985: Miami Industries of Piqua, Ohio, reaches an agreement to buy the roll formed shapes department of the financially troubled Van Huffel Tube Corp. in Warren.

A truce is called in the dispute between three local labor unions and Cuyahoga Wrecking Corp. of New York over the dismantling of the blast furnaces at the old Campbell Works. Work and picketing of the site will be discontinued until an agreement is reached.

February 27, 1970: A solution of the Youngstown Transit Co. bus service crisis on a regional basis gets another setback when Trumbull County commissioners refuse a second time to approve a resolution of cooperation with the Mahoning Valley Regional Transit Authority.

Trumbull Common Pleas Judge Lynn B. Griffith Jr. issues a temporary restraining order against Trumbull County commissioners, forbidding them to proceed further with forming a new government for Liberty Township.

February 27, 1960: The first national charter ever given to a local USO committee is presented to the Youngstown USO Committee at the YMCA, The USO is also honored for its service to men at the Youngstown Jet Air Force Base at the Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Joseph Malesky, a member of the Youngstown Fire Department since 1947, is promoted to captain, succeeding Charles Prosser, who died Feb. 4. Elia Asimakopolous is promoted to engineer.

The Shenango Inn, the community hotel in Sharon, Pa., closes its ninth year debt free and with $118,769 in its surplus fund.

February 27, 1935: Alfred E. Reinmann, assistant district appraiser for the Home Owners Loan Corp., is offered the job of relief director for Mahoning County, succeeding Raymond A. Noble.

The Ohio Senate approves 19-7 a bill to legalize dog racing in the state.

James Jones, who hasn’t failed for years to mark his birthday with a brisk 5-mile walk from his home in Niles to Warren, arrives at the courthouse shortly after 8 a.m. and pays his taxes on his 84th birthday. He started his walk back before his son, Elmer, a deputy auditor, even arrived by automobile for work.