Years Ago

March 27, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, March 27, the 86th day of 2010. There are 279 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sights present-day Florida.

1794: Congress approves “An Act to provide a Naval Armament” of six armed ships.

1836: The first Mormon temple is dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio.

1884: The first telephone line between Boston and New York is inaugurated.

1945: During World War II, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower tells reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.

1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.

1964: Alaska is hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunamis that kill about 130 people.

1977: Five hundred and eighty three people are killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashes into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

1980: One hundred and twenty three workers die when a North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander Kielland, capsizes during a storm.

1990: The U.S. begins test broadcasts of TV Marti to Cuba, which promptly jams the signal.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: The Youngstown Board of Education refuses to act on Superintendent Emanuel Catsoules’ recommendation that Richard DeVincentis be reassigned from principal at South High School to a junior high principal.

Youngstown area congressmen, James A. Traficant Jr., Dennis Eckart, D-Mentor, Douglas Applegate, D-Steubenville, Thomas Ridge, R-Erie, and Joseph Kolter, D-New Brighton, all vote against further production of the MX missile, defying heavy White House lobbying. The measure passes the House, 219-213.

1970: Youngstown has the highest infant, neo-natal and pre-natal death rate of any city of comparable size in Ohio, Walter H. Greissinger, Youngstown’s new health commissioner, tells the Health and Welfare Council at the Hotel Ohio.

Mahoning County commissioners are confronted with raising $279,000 for the Children Services Board for 1970 or face possible court action.

Burglars take the entire narcotic supply and a safe from Southern Drug Co. at 144 Boardman-Poland Road. The burglary was discovered at 6 a.m., after Girard police reported finding the empty safe.

1960: Youngstown’s new bishop, James W. Malone, is honored with a reception at Cardinal Mooney High School, where students from diocesan schools present him with gifts, including a new crosier, symbol of his pastoral office.

Farrell High School wins the Pennsylvania state basketball championship, beating Radnor, 60-41, before 10,000 fans in Harrisburg.

Mayor Frank R. Franko declares Neighborhood Center Week in Youngstown, where events are scheduled at eight local settlement and neighborhood centers. The theme is marking the 100th birthday of Jane Addams, who founded the Hull House in Chicago.

1935: Police say auto thieves are scouring local junk yards and buying wrecks, then using the titles to make stolen cars usable and saleable.

An average family of five people may expect to receive about $600 a year in cash relief under a plan being worked out by the Mahoning County Relief Administration.

The Ohio Supreme Court rules that Judge George Gessner cannot serve as chairman of the Mahoning County’s home rule charter commission.