Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Jan. 28, the 28th day of 2010. There are 337 days left in the year. On this date in 1980, in what becomes known as “the Canadian Caper,” six U.S. diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran fly out of Iran with the help of Canadian diplomats.

In 1547, England’s King Henry VIII dies; he is succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI. In 1909, the U.S. withdraws its forces from Cuba as Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president. In 1915, the United States Coast Guard is created as President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service. In 1916, Louis D. Brandeis is nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court; Brandeis becomes the court’s first Jewish member. In 1945, during World War II, Allied supplies begin reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road. In 1960, the National Football League awards franchises to Dallas and Minneapolis-St. Paul. In 1973, a cease-fire officially goes into effect in the Vietnam War. In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven of its crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

January 28, 1985: Members of the Mahoning Valley’s delegation to the Ohio General Assembly are noncommittal on a bill that would mandate the use of seat belts by motorists.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste unveils a $20.2 billion state budget for 1986-87 and proposes cutting business taxes and reducing the personal income tax by 10 percent over two years.

January 28, 1970: Claude E. Vealey, one of three men charged in the murder of Joseph Yablonski and his family, was wanted in Mahoning County for failure to show up for arraignment Jan. 5 after being charged with a house break-in. Vealey’s bond had been posted by another Yablonski suspect, Paul E. Gilly.

Non-Christians who approve of the Youngstown YMCA’s objectives may become voting members, eligible for board membership, as a result of a constitutional change approved at the organization’s annual meeting.

East Ohio Gas Co. relaxes its restriction on industrial gas consumption and area companies that had been allotted only 25 percent of their normal gas allowances during the cold snap have begun recalling workers.

January 28, 1960: Speaking in Cleveland, Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson assures 3,200 Republicans, including 300 from the Youngstown area, that the battle for fiscal soundness waged by President Dwight D. Eisenhower “will never, never end.”

Youngstown public school teacher absences drop from 56 to 8 and absenteeism among pupils is dropping as the worst of the flu bug seems to have passed.

January 28, 1935: About 4,700 salaried employees of Republic Steel Corp. and Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., half of whom work in the Youngstown district, are restored to a 51‚Ñ2 day work week.

Some breakfast buyers were ordering their coffee and doughnuts separately at downtown lunch counters to keep the charge under a nickel and avoid Ohio’s new 3 percent sales tax.

More than 50 Youngstowners respond to a radio appeal by Father Coughlin and send telegrams from the Western Union office downtown to their senators urging them to vote against the United States joining the National World Court.