Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Feb. 12, the 43rd day of 2011. There are 322 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1554: Lady Jane Grey, who’d claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, are beheaded after being condemned for high treason.

1795: The University of North Carolina becomes the first U.S. state university to admit students with the arrival of Hinton James.

1908: The first round-the-world automobile race begins in New York. (It ends in Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas Flyer, declared the winners over teams from Germany and Italy.)

1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded.

1915: The cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial is laid in Washington, D.C., a year to the day after groundbreaking.

1940: The radio play “The Adventures of Superman” debuts with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.

1973: Operation Homecoming begins as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict takes place.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: High absenteeism due to outbreaks of influenza has left the Youngstown City School District short of substitute teachers.

Lyle Williams is reported unlikely to make an effort to regain his congressional seat by challenging James A. Traficant Jr., who defeated him in 1984.

1971: Wide Receiver John Gibson of Thiel College and Boardman High School signs a contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. Bengals assistant coach Bill Walsh is in Greenville, Pa. for the signing ceremony.

Mayor Jack C. Hunter tells the Downtown Lions Club that annexation of the suburbs to Youngstown “is the key to economic and responsible government” for the entire district.

A 14-year-old East High School boy is found delinquent for extorting small change from fellow students and is ordered held in the Juvenile Research Center to await sentencing.

Young vandals break into Princeton Junior High School, force their way into a third floor kitchen and throw eggs, sugar, flour and salt throughout the room.

1961: U.S. Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg meets with Ohio Gov. Michael V. DiSalle and says failure to deal with the critical problem of unemployment would be “a denial of responsibility by us all.”

Eagle Scout Daniel W. Wolboldt, 17, of Canfield is among a delegation of Ohio Boy Scouts who report to Gov. DiSalle on scouting accomplishments during the year.

Youngstown University’s sixth annual Religious Emphasis Week opens in First Christian Church when Dr. Carl U. Wolf, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Toledo, speaks on “How to be a Beatnik.”

1936: A special survey committee of the Youngstown Association of Insurance Agents begins a check-up of all city insurance policies, with a preliminary assessment that some city assets are over insured while others are under insured.

Two bandits rob Frank Spagnola, a clerk at the Savoy Hotel downtown, of $1,500 in cash and endorsed pay checks.

The Rev. Fenwick W. Fraser, retired pastor of the Poland Presbyterian Church and clerk of the Mahoning Presbytery, dies of a heart attack after collapsing while walking in Sheridan Road.