Years Ago

Today is Friday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2011. There are 316 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1546: Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, dies in Eisleben.

1861: Jefferson Davis is sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala.

1885: Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is published in the U.S. for the first time.

1960: The 8th Winter Olympic Games are formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

1970: The “Chicago Seven” defendants are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five are convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968 (those convictions were later reversed).

1977: The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, goes on its maiden “flight” above the Mojave Desert.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Members of the United Steelworkers locals at LTV Steel Corp.’s Warren Works will vote on a package of job reductions, work rule changes and early retirement incentives.

Tiffany Chill becomes the first girl in Boardman history to score over 1,000 career points when the senior scores 23 points in the Spartans’ victory over Beaver Local.

1971: Demand for the new Chevrolet Vega is keeping most of the 10,000 employees of the General Motors-Fisher Body complex at Lordstown on a six-day work week.

Ernest Hill, 68, a retired shop teacher at Ben Franklin Junior High School in New Castle, is struck and killed by a car that slid out of control on icy Taylor Street.

1961: Two Trumbull County pilots and two Meadville, Pa., engineers are killed when a Youngstown Airways twin-engine Super Beechcraft crashes while attempting a landing in fog at the Franklin, Pa., airport. Dead are William G. Bailey, 33, of Niles,; Robert Daniels, 28, of Leavittsburg; Francis J. Pfiefer, 55 of Meadville, and Carl Orzepowski, 50, of Conneaut Lake.

The Youngstown Transit Co. transfers 10 of its new Metroliner buses to Akron after city council and Mayor Frank R. Franko refuse to approve their purchase.

1936: Fire Chief Herman Steinfurth says a stampede that injured a number of children after a false cry of fire at the Dome theater was caused by adults.

Warren cops nail 21 men in raids on numbers racketeers, including kingpin James Munsene, and confiscate of slips, books, adding machines.

The Rev. Americo Ciampichini, former local pastor, and Atty. William B. Spagnola will be principle speakers, providing a detailed explanation of the Italo-Ethiopian war at the Nu-Elm Ballroom, 529 Elm St.