Years ago

Today is Monday, Jan. 4, the fourth day of 2010. There are 361 days left in the year. On this date in 1960, Algerian-born French author and philosopher Albert Camus dies in an automobile accident in Villeblevin, France, at age 46.

In 1821, the first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, dies in Emmitsburg, Md. In 1896, Utah is admitted as the 45th state. In 1904, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, rules that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and can enter the United States freely; however, the court stops short of declaring them U.S. citizens. In 1948, Burma (now called Myanmar) becomes independent of British rule. In 1951, during the Korean War, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces recapture the city of Seoul. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the goals of his “Great Society” in his State of the Union Address. Poet T.S. Eliot dies in London at age 76. In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. In 1990, Charles Stuart, who’d claimed to have been wounded and his pregnant wife shot dead by a robber, leaps to his death off a Boston bridge after he himself becomes a suspect. In 2000, acting Russian President Vladimir Putin fires Boris Yeltsin’s daughter (Tatyana Dyachenko) from her Kremlin post in one of his first official acts, moving quickly to distance himself from Yeltsin’s scandal-tinged administration. In 2007, Nancy Pelosi is elected the first female speaker of the House as Democrats take control of Congress.

January 4, 1985: Developer James E. McMurray unveils plans for a $3 million renovation of the former Voyager Motor Inn downtown.

Nearly five months after LTV Steel Co. announced that it was studying whether to close its continuous weld pipe plant on Poland Avenue or a plant in Aliquippa, the company says that the Poland Avenue plant will be kept open.

The Ohio Department of Health has been asked to allow Hillside Hospital in Howland to convert some of its beds to nursing home care.

January 4, 1970: The Youngs-town Area Chamber of Commerce suggests that Youngstown increase its water and sewer rates rather than use the general fund to subsidize those operations.

Six months after his death in Vietnam, Pvt. Bill Terry becomes the first black man buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Ala. It took a court order to allow his mother and young wife to buy the plot in the all-white cemetery.

The Church of Christ in Mineral Ridge marks its 100th anniversary with a service at which the Rev. Harold S. Smith, minister at the church from 1928 to 1936, will speak.

January 4, 1960: The steel industry and its workers reach an agreement that will provide workers with increases of 39 cents an hour over 30 months.

The Ohio Bell Telephone Co. announces that it will spend $4.9 million on construction in the Youngstown district during 1960.

Many of the thousands of starlings driven from the Mahoning County Courthouse by “Birdman” Otto Standke have taken up residence on other downtown buildings, including the Hotel Pick-Ohio.

January 4, 1935: While a dozen diners sat unaware at their tables, three gunmen held up the Star Oyster House at 26 Boardman St., across the street from the county jail and a block from the police station.

The PWA housing division approves a $1.3 million slum clearance project for Youngstown.

Four members of the Mahoning County Bar Association are organizing the regional meeting of the seventh appellate district that will be sponsored by the Mahoning County Bar and Youngstown Lawyer’s Club. Fannyerose Gancfried is general chairman, aided by Joseph Friedman, Earl D. Haefner and W.E. Lewis.