Years Ago

March 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Monday, March 29, the 88th day of 2010. There are 277 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1847: During the Mexican-American War, victorious forces led by Gen. Winfield Scott occupy the city of Veracruz after Mexican defenders capitulate.

1882: The Knights of Columbus is chartered in Connecticut.

1943: World War II rationing of meat, fats and cheese begins.

1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. (They were executed in June 1953.)

1962: Jack Paar hosts NBC’s “Tonight” show for the final time.

1973: The last United States combat troops leave South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: The Youngstown district is bailing out from a deluge of up to two inches of rain, with heavy hail in some sections.

In a rare move, the Defense Department bars General Electric Co. from bidding on Pentagon projects, pending a federal investigation into charges the company defrauded the government of $800,000 in building nuclear warhead systems.

1970: City Patrolman John Lynch keeps a fire at the Ohio Hotel from getting out of control after he spots a glow in a fifth floor room, calls in an alarm and then goes to the room himself, where he extinguishes the fire, using a fire extinguisher. The loss is kept to $500.

Common Pleas Judge Erskine Maiden takes under consideration motions to dismiss obscene literature lawsuits regarding the sale of two magazines in Youngstown, Playboy and Modern Man.

1960: Youngstowners are relaxing in temperatures reaching 70 degrees, the highest in five months.

Youngstown traffic commissioner John F. Pletnik says the city should proceed with modernization of traffic signals in line with a 1959 engineering study to help speed the flow of traffic.

Julius Cohen, president of Jewel Homes announces plans for a $5.5 million community of all-brick, air-conditioned homes on a 90 acre site at Raccoon and Burkey Roads.

1935: Mahoning County Sheriff Ralph Elser calls on “church people” to stop cooperating with operators of the bug as step toward smashing petty gambling in Youngstown.

Of the 262 people employed by the Mahoning County Relief Administration, 100 are caseworkers, the shock troops in the relief war who visit the homes of hundreds of needy families.

Miss Esther Cunahan of Struthers, a junior at Wooster College, is elected May Queen and will reign over the annual college Color Day.