Years Ago
Today is Sunday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2010. There are 341 days left in the year. On this date in 1848, James W. Marshall discovers a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that leads to the gold rush of ’49.
In 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England under the aegis of Robert Baden-Powell. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill conclude a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco. In 1965, Winston Churchill dies in London at age 90. In 1978, a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunges through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrates, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada. In 1985, the space shuttle Discovery is launched from Cape Canaveral on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission. In 1989, confessed serial killer Theodore Bundy is executed in Florida’s electric chair. In 2003, Tom Ridge is sworn in as the first head of the new Department of Homeland Security.
January 24, 1985: A General Motors official says that when Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste arrives in Detroit, he will be told that GM is interested in locating its new Saturn plant on a site that “assures long-term low cost” so that it can be competitive with the Japanese.
Cyril Smolko, a retired Youngstown detective and former police chief, is killed when his car slides on icy Route 534 two miles north of I-76. He was 69.
U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. says after a meeting of supporters for a campaign to attract General Motors’s Saturn plant to the Mahoning Valley that the group has numbers, but “lacks enough enthusiasm to attract anything.”
January 24, 1970: A consultant is hired and planning begun for Youngstown State University’s proposed $6 million library, says Dr. John Coffelt, vice president for administrative affairs.
A 12-year-old East Side boy is found guilty of breaking and entering and the attempted rape of a young housewife. He is committed to the Ohio Youth commission in Columbus.
January 24, 1960: Youngstown bug operators are continuing to accept bets on the totals of both stock and racing results, although in nearby Pennsylvania lottery bookers, hurting from a series of heavy hits, are switching from stock to race numbers. Racketeers in Pittsburgh have agreed to the switch.
John Strachan, one of Youngstown’s oldest residents, who made a fortune as a pawn broker, real estate man and coal mine owner, dies at 95.
Debbie Stuart, 7, of Warren, escapes injury when she quickly lies down when she sees that the car of a janitor at Elm Road School was backing up toward her. She lay flat until the car passed over her.
January 24, 1935: The Mahoning-Beaver Waterway will head the list of proposed city and county projects to be submitted for the national PWA inventory, boosting local program proposals well over the $40 million mark.
Locke Miller, defeated Democratic candidate for Congress in the race against Congressman John G. Cooper, admits he was in Massillon State Hospital for the Insane from the first of 1929 until “oats planting time,” most likely in May. Miller is challenging the results of election has been acting as his own attorney during a long public deposition process. Citing demands of his office, Cooper has declined to attend.
Chaney High School will graduate the tallest class in its history at the 16th commencement when 84 seniors receive diplomas in the school auditorium. Eleven of the 46 boys are over 6 feet tall, including Emil Ference, Steve Serednesky and Nick Temnick, who are 6 feet, 4 inches.