Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2011. There are 263 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1811: Fur traders employed by John Jacob Astor begin building Fort Astoria in present-day Oregon.

1861: The American Civil War begins as Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. (The Union troops holding the fort surrender the following day.)

1877: The catcher’s mask is first used in a baseball game, by James Tyng of Harvard in a game against the Lynn Live Oaks.

1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he is succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

1955: The Salk vaccine against polio is declared safe and effective.

1960: Candlestick Park in San Francisco first opens, with Vice President Richard Nixon throwing the ceremonial first pitch. (The San Francisco Giants go on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1.)

1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

1981: The space shuttle Columbia blasts off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis dies in Las Vegas, Nev., at age 66.

1985: Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, becomes the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifts off.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Attys. David J. Betras and Anthony Khoury file a $5 million suit against Woodside Receiving Hospital claiming that doctors negligently released a patient who subsequently shot their client.

The Trumbull County Planning Commission recommends five sites for canoe launches along a 22-mile stretch of the Mahoning River between Newton Falls and Packard Park.

Bishop James W. Malone will present national religious awards to 75 young people, members of Camp Fire, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.

1971: General Motors announces that 23,300 Lordstown-built Chevrolet Vegas are being recalled for a variety of mechanical defects ranging from possible faulty chokes to noisy windshield wipers.

A 45-year-old Pittsburgh pilot and his 9-year-old daughter escape injury when their small plane crash lands at Youngstown Executive Airport near Gibson Road.

The new $500,000 Slovak Catholic Sokol Center opens at 850 E. Midlothian Ave.

1961: The $2 million Mahoning County Home is given final federal and state approval and contracts will be signed by Mahoning County commissioners.

Ursuline Sister M. Jerome, Ph.D., Youngstown Diocesan supervisor of education, publishes her first book, “The Catholic Elementary Principal.” The first guide for the profession.

The Youngstown Planning Commission votes 5-0 to recommend commercial rezoning of Canfield Road acreage near Cornersburg for a new shopping plaza.

1936: Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Henry C. Church opens an investigation into reports that some Mahoning County employees were illegally solicited for campaign contributions.

Two firemen, Capt. Arthur B. Lewis, and Fireman Walter Clinefelter suffer minor injuries while fighting a fire that did $500 damage to the Epworth M.E. Church.

More than 20,000 people tour the new Penn-Ohio and Greyhound bus line terminal in the Hippodrome Arcade during an open house.