Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Jan. 23, the 23rd day of 2010. There are 342 days left in the year. On this date in 1960, the Swiss-Italian-made bathyscaphe Trieste, owned and operated by the U.S. Navy, carries two men to the deepest known point in the Pacific Ocean, reaching a depth of more than 35,000 feet inside the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

In 1789, Georgetown University is established in present-day Washington, D.C. In 1849, English-born Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman in America to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y. In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1950, the Israeli Knesset approves a resolution affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In 1964, the 24th amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, is ratified. In 1968, North Korea seizes the Navy intelligence ship USS Pueblo, charging its crew with being on a spying mission. (The crew is released 11 months later.) In 1973, President Richard M. Nixon announces an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War. In 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is abducted in Karachi, Pakistan, by a group demanding the return of prisoners from the Afghan campaign; he is later slain.

January 23, 1985: Dave Dravecky, whose outstanding pitching performances helped the San Diego Padres win the National League pennant, is named “Major League Player of the Year” by the sponsors of Sandalini’s Benefit Sports Banquet.

The Mahoning County Mental Health Board is briefed on a proposal to establish a chemical dependency treatment of adolescents program at North Side Hospital, which would mean teenagers would no longer have to go to Akron or Pittsburgh for treatment.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste gives his personal commitment to local elected officials and residents of the Mahoning Valley that the state will move forward on various bridge and highway projects immediately and begin construction “as soon as possible.”

January 23, 1970:Paul Antolik, a 67-year-old retired steelworker, becomes Youngstown’s first traffic fatality of 1970 after being struck by a car while crossing Meridian Road.

Thousands of industrial workers throughout the Mahoning Valley are idle as key operations needing natural gas are shut down while the icy cold wave continues with a numbing six degrees below zero registered at the Youngstown airport.

January 23, 1960: The Westminster Presbyterian Church received $57,621 in cash toward its new building fund and $155,000 in pledges, says J.Q. Adams, during the 67th annual meeting of the congregation.

Gerald Skruck, 17, of Hubbard escapes serious injury when he drives into the engine of an Erie Railroad passenger train at the Mill Street crossing outside of Hubbard. The front of the station wagon he was driving was demolished.

“Birdman” Otto Standke declares downtown Youngstown buildings free of troublesome starlings and packs his bags and his magic box for Cleveland, where he says he will tackle a bird problem at a big bank and some other buildings.

The Cleveland News, an afternoon daily newspaper, is purchased by Scripps-Howard chain, which also publishes the Cleveland Press.

January 23, 1935: Carl Dennison, president of the Youngstown Junior Chamber of Commerce, receives the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce gold medal for “distinguished service to the community.”

A judgment for $6,478 against Ford Canfield, former county clerk of courts, is issued by Judge Erskine Maiden Jr. in favor of the county for money that was deposited in banks that are defunct. Canfield was bonded against the loss by an insurance company.

Fred LaBelle, former official of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District and the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, returns to the city and says he is determined to clear his name of an embezzlement conviction.