Years Ago

Today is Thursday, April 7, the 97th day of 2011. There are 268 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1788: Gen. Rufus Putnam’s expedition establishes a settlement at present-day Marietta, Ohio.

1927: The image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover are transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television.

1969: The Supreme Court, in Stanley v. Georgia, unanimously strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: John Raisbeck, executive vice president of Bank One of Eastern Ohio, says the bank has invested $1 million in its downtown Youngstown headquarters in the last year.

Arson fires in Youngstown have decreased dramatically in recent years, dropping from 556 with damage of $3.8 million in 1982 to 214 with damage of $1.9 million in 1985.

1971: Significant diet deficiencies appear in a survey conducted among 725 fourth graders in 16 elementary schools in Youngstown. Nearly half did not drink three glasses of milk a day and 38 did not have any milk in the last 24 hours.

Damage is estimated at $100,000 in a fire that destroyed the Hickory Recreation Center in Hickory Township, Pa.

The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Norman P. Kelley, pastor of St. Rose Church in Girard for 28 years, is retiring. A native of Cleveland, he was ordained there in 1937 by Archbishop Joseph Schrembs.

1961: Youngstown University’s ROTC unit holds a special drill to honor Vincent Mellot, an 18-year-old freshman ROTC member who received the President’s Medal of the National Safety Council. He used his Boy Scout training to resuscitate then-two-year-old Joan Elaine Lotze in 1959 after she fell into a swimming pool at her grandmother’s North Lima Home.

Sharon Steel Corp. awards contracts for two new slab-heating furnaces at its Roemer Works at a cost of $4.5 million.

1936: R.D. McGill, Youngstown district WPA director, says 300 men will be cut from the WPA work rolls in Mahoning County, reducing their number to 7,300. There had been 8,300 in February.

Youngstown Police Judge Harry C. Hoffman dismisses criminal charges against Fred Fusco, 23, of W. Federal St., who refused to pay a $1 parking fine. Hoffman rules that violating the city’s parking ordinance does not constitute a crime.