Years Ago

Today is Friday, Jan. 15, the 15th day of 2010. There are 350 days left in the year. On this date in 2009, US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditches his Airbus 320 in the Hudson River after a flock of birds disabled both the plane’s engines; all 155 people aboard survive.

In 1559, England’s Queen Elizabeth I is crowned in Westminster Abbey. In 1777, the people of New Connecticut declare their independence. (The tiny republic later becomes the state of Vermont.) In 1844, the University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana. In 1850, pioneering Russian mathematician Sonya Kovalevsky is born in Moscow. In 1929, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is born in Atlanta. In 1942, Jawaharlal Nehru is named to succeed Mohandas K. Gandhi as head of India’s Congress Party. In 1943, work is completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War (now Defense). In 1947, the mutilated remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, who comes to be known as the “Black Dahlia,” are found in a vacant Los Angeles lot; her slaying remains unsolved. In 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeat the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I. In 2000, masked gunmen open fire in a hotel lobby in Belgrade, killing Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, who had been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for alleged atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia.

January 15, 1985: Pamela Hyde, director of the Ohio Department off Mental Health, is coming to Youngstown Feb. 1, fueling speculation that Woodside Receiving Hospital will be closed.

Heavy snow, high winds and bitter cold close dozens of Youngstown area schools and exhaust road crews that are clearing drifts as high as 4 feet.

The 1984 All-Steel Valley Conference football team is honored at the Youngstown YMCA luncheon meeting of the Curbstone Coaches.

January 15, 1970: The Research Committee on Incorporation, having gained the backing of the township trustees, votes to begin a drive to incorporate all or part of Brookfield Township.

Youngstown City Council approves a $20.7 million budget for 1970, which includes $12 million for the general relief.

Earl W. Brauninger, president of Union National Bank of Youngstown, informs shareholders that bank assets increased by $10.9 million to $142.million.

January 15, 1960: Youngstown University receives $7,876 from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to buy laboratory equipment for its nuclear education program, Dr. Howard W. Jones announces.

“Birdman” Otto D. Standke says the eight buildings in his contract are “clean as a hound’s tooth” of the starlings that Standke was brought to Youngstown to deal with.

Mario Carlini, office manager for Sheriff Paul J. Langley, is named chief bailiff of Youngstown Municipal Court to succeed Frank Wood, who retired.

January 15, 1935: Alexander Struich of Youngstown, who was visiting Yugoslavia when King Alexander was assassinated Oct. 9 and was grilled twice by police, has returned to Youngstown. He says most Yugoslavians are eager for a new World War, which they believe will restore the rights they lost in the last war.

Gov. George White pardons nine more prisoners as he leaves office, but one of them is not Cyrus H. Neff of Canfield whose friends had lobbied for a commutation.

Major W.D. Styer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, tells the Erie Chamber of Commerce that a canal by way of the Mahoning and Beaver rivers is the best way to link Lake Erie and the Ohio River. Erie is promoting a canal via French Creek and the Allegheny River that would terminate at Erie.