Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2011. There are 317 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1801: The U.S. House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr becomes vice president.

1809: The Ohio legislature votes to establish Miami University in present-day Oxford. (The school opens in 1824.)

1897: The forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convenes its first meeting, in Washington.

1904: The original two-act version of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly” is poorly received at its premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

1964: The Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, rules that congressional districts within each state have to be roughly equal in population.

1972: President Richard M. Nixon departs on his historic trip to China.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Youngstown police arrest the 26-year-old girlfriend of police Officer Richard N. Carey, in the off-duty fatal wounding of Carey with his service revolver at his North Side home.

Enrollment at the Ohio School for the Deaf has dropped to 126 and parents of students there fear for the school’s future.

The Niles Area Chamber of Commerce follows the lead of an Akron firm in efforts to establish a business incubator designed to nurture new businesses in their early days.

1971: State Sen. Harry Meshel is one of four senators to introduce a measure to put an issue on the state ballot that would require more openness in the state Legislature.

Two waitresses at Cherry’s Top of the Mall restaurant in Niles appear before a federal grand jury in Cleveland investigating organized gambling in Northeastern Ohio.

1961:The Community Chest campaign for 1961 operations raises $1.1 million, or $16,706 more than the previous year

The Federal Communications Commission rejects a petition by Youngstown television station WXTV to change from Channel 45 to Channel 15 on the grounds that the change would interfere with WTAP-TV in Parkersburg, W.Va., which uses Channel 15.

1936: More than 20 children and some adults are knocked over and trampled when 1,000 patrons stampeded from Youngstown’s Dome Theater after a false cry of “fire” causes panic.

Two Rayen School students, Clarence Sumner and Vivian Kane, attracted by flames while driving home from a barbeque stand in Churchill discover the burning body of a well-groomed man on Applegate Road.

Youngstown Finance Director Frank W. Barton says the city will push for collection of $4.3 million in delinquent property taxes owed the city.