Years Ago

March 2, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Tuesday, March 2, the 61st day of 2010. There are 304 days left in the year. On this date in 1836, the Republic of Texas formally declares its independence from Mexico.

In 1793, the first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, is born near Lexington, Va. In 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes is declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote. In 1899, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state is established. In 1917, Puerto Ricans are granted U.S. citizenship as President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones-Shafroth Act. In 1930, English author and poet D.H. Lawrence dies in Vence, France, at age 44. In 1939, Roman Catholic Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected pope on his 63rd birthday; he takes the name Pius the 12th. In 1943, the World War II Battle of the Bismarck Sea begins; U.S. and Australian warplanes are able to inflict heavy damage on a Japanese convoy.

March 2, 1985: Third Ward Councilman George M. McKelvey, says he will not seek the Democratic Party’s endorsement for re-election because the party endorsed Herman P. Starks for mayor over the incumbent, Patrick J. Ungaro.

Auto dealers say President Reagan’s decision not to oppose the end of quota’s on Japanese cars exported to the United States could mean lower prices on domestic and foreign cars. Rudy Gasparek, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at Lordstown, says dropping the quotas will be catastrophic for America’s auto industry.

Speaking in Louisville, Ky., U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Youngstown says the estimated $3 billion it would cost to build a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River would create jobs and stimulate the economy.

March 2, 1970: Youngstown’s business community commits itself to providing a cash subsidy to keep Youngstown Transit Co. buses on district roads for at least four months. The estimated cost is $40,000.

The Supreme Court rules that the five-year statute of limitations on draft law prosecutions expires five years after a youth is first required to register, meaning anyone able to avoid induction until his 23rd birthday would be immune from prosecution.

With the temperatures reaching the 50’s, Joe Vitullo takes two friends out for a tour of his Hubbard golf course and sinks a hole in one on the 137-yard No. 16 “saucer hole.”

March 2, 1960: J.L. Mauthe, chairman of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., announces that the company spent $75 million in 1959 and has $150 million worth of projects underway.

Municipal Court Judge Don L. Hanni Jr. sentences a 26-year-old Joseph Street man to 30 days in jail after finding him guilty of driving while his license was suspended.

A 52-year-old Watt Street grandfather is sentenced to six months in county jail for taking four teenage girls playing hooky from school to a private club near Westlakes Crossing. A member of the club got 30 days in jail for serving whiskey to two of the girls.

March 2, 1935: Henry A. Roemer, well-known Youngstown steel man and chairman of Sharon Steel Hoop Co., announces he is forming a new company, Niles Rolling Mill Co., to take over the Falcon plant in Niles, giving employment to about 300 men.

Robert Zolg, a fencer at the University of Dayton, is believed near death after being run through by the saber of another fencer, Larry Libecap of the University of Cincinnati, during a good natured impromptu match in a Dayton gymnasium.