YEARS AGO

March 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Thursday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2010. There are 302 days left in the year.

WORLD EVENTS

On this date in:

1789: The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourn for lack of a quorum.)

1858: Sen. James Henry Hammond of South Carolina declares “Cotton is king” in a speech to the U.S. Senate.

1861: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States.

1908: A fire at Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio, claims the lives of 172 children and three adults.

1930: Coolidge Dam in Arizona is dedicated by its namesake, former President Calvin Coolidge.

1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office as America’s 32nd president.

1977: Some 1,500 people are killed in an earthquake that shakes southern and eastern Europe.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant, D-17, lashes out at President Reagan for not opposing an end to Japan’s quotas on auto exports to this country, saying it could prompt Mitsubishi Motors to shelve plans for a U.S. auto plant.

An earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter Scale rumbles through central Chile, killing at least 124 people and injuring more than 2,000.

Mrs. Charles B. Cushwa Jr., who has figured prominently in community and church service in Youngstown for more than a half century, is named by Youngstown State University Alumni Association as the 1985 Distinguished Citizen.

1970: The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority briefs city council and the planning commission on YMHA’s plans for a $1.95 million housing development for the elderly on Commonwealth Avenue just north of the McGuffey Plaza.

A two-alarm fire destroys a warehouse on Tod Avenue housing Superior Beverage Co. and Northwest Tomato and Product Co. Damage is estimated at $100,000.

1960: Mr. And Mrs. Elton Beard of New Middletown who have been visiting Morocco are reported safe at the El Mansour Hotel in Casablanca, well away from the center of the earthquake that struck the port city of Agadir.

An early morning fire guts the Villa Nova in Farrell, one of the area’s oldest and best known restaurants. Damage is estimated at $50,000.

1935: “Murder is one of the seven capital sins that cry to heaven for vengeance,” the Rev. Joseph Elias, assistant pastor of Holy Name Church, tells the congregation that packed the church for a requiem high mass for 13-year-old Frank Suhovecky.

Youngstown police officer Frank Davis reports getting a phone call from a man asking for the day’s bug number. Davis gave him the first number that came to mind, 344, which was not the right number. Davis says such calls are not that unusual.