Years Ago

Today is Friday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2010. There are 357 days left in the year. On this date in 1935, rock-’n’-roll legend Elvis Presley is born in Tupelo, Miss.

In 1798, the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is declared in effect by President John Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibits a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlines his “Fourteen Points” for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi becomes the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition. In 1959, Charles de Gaulle is inaugurated as president of France’s Fifth Republic. In Cuba, Fidel Castro and his army arrive in Havana in triumph following the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in his State of the Union address. In 1973, the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resume. In 1976, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai dies in Beijing. In 1987, for the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closes above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.

January 8, 1985: State Sen. Paul Gillmor, R-Clinton, is sworn in as president of the Ohio Senate, replacing Sen. Harry Meshel, D-Youngstown.

The Heisman trophy awarded to Youngstown’s Frank Sinkwich in 1943 is reported stolen from its display case at the University of Georgia Athletic Department dormitory.

January 8, 1970: Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Sidney Rigelhaupt orders striking teachers of Springfield Local School District back to work.

The mercury drops to 12 below zero at the Salem sewage treatment plant and 7 below at the Youngstown Municipal Airport.

January 8, 1960: Mahoning County gets a tax windfall of $600,000 after a state Tax Commission ruling that Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. must pay that amount in tangible personal property taxes.

Choirs of St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church sing carols on Central Square to mark the Orthodox Christmas Day.

January 8, 1935: Declaring that it is not a pleasant thing to do, Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge J.H.C. Lyons hands down his first death sentence, declaring that George Davis, 23, be electrocuted on April 22 for the murder of Thomas McLean during a robbery.

Warren Perry, one of Ohio’s best informed men on taxes and for many years chairman of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce tax committee, dies in the Cleveland Clinic.