Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2011. There are 329 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1631: The co-founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and his wife, Mary, arrive in Boston from England.

1783: Sweden recognizes the independence of the United States.

1811: George, the Prince of Wales, is named Prince Regent due to the mental illness of his father, Britain’s King George III.

1911: Missouri’s second Capitol building in Jefferson City burns down after being struck by lightning.

Opera singer Jussi Bjoerling is born in Borlange, Dalarna, Sweden.

1917: Congress passes, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, an immigration act severely curtailing the influx of Asians.

1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes increasing the number of Supreme Court justices; critics accuse Roosevelt of attempting to “pack” the court. (The proposal fails in Congress.)

1940: Glenn Miller and his orchestra record “Tuxedo Junction” for RCA Victor’s Bluebird label.

1958: Gamal Abdel Nasser is formally nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic (a union of Syria and Egypt).

1971: Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell step onto the surface of the moon in the first of two lunar excursions.

1989: The Soviet Union announces that all but a small rear-guard contingent of its troops have left Afghanistan.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Youngstown FOP President Ron Skowron says the city police union has rescinded its approval of a three-year contract over differing interpretations with the Ungaro administration as to what was agreed to on holiday pay.

U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Poland, offers his critique of President Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union address: “He is so out of touch with reality that it makes me wonder what is going on.”

1971: Federal officials in Washington give a Mahoning County delegation a blunt answer on its request for funding for an $8 million sewer project: “No.”

The Rev. Robert J. Novotny is named pastor of St. John the Baptist (Slovak) Church in Campbell. He succeeds the Rev. Albert Klein, who will become pastor of St. Ambrose Church, Garrettsville.

1961: Steel pipe orders are increasing, giving the Youngstown steel district a boost at a time when demand for steel by the auto industry is declining.

Youngstown Mayor Frank R. Franko appeals to President Kennedy to give his support to the construction of a canal linking Lake Erie and the Ohio River through the Mahoning Valley.

Youngstown area businesses will get a $500,000 shot in the arm thanks to President Kennedy’s order that the Veterans Administration distribute GI insurance dividends for the year immediately.

1936: Cifford S. MacCalla, general manager of the Ohio Edison Co.’s holdings in the Youngstown district dies in North Side Hospital after suffering a heart attack while on the elevator in the Ohio Edison Building.

U.S. Sen. William F. Borah, R-Idaho, says he will make his first Ohio appearance in his campaign for the presidency a stop in Youngstown sometime in March.