Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2011. There are 314 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1792: President George Washington signs an act creating the U.S. Post Office.

1809: The Supreme Court rules that no state legislature could annul the judgments of federal courts.

1811: Austria declares state bankruptcy.

1839: Congress prohibits dueling in the District of Columbia.

1938: Anthony Eden resigns as British foreign secretary following Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s decision to negotiate with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

1944: During World War II, U.S. bombers begin raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that become known as “Big Week.”

1962: Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth as he flies aboard the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7.

2003: Fire breaks out during a rock concert at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: U.S. Sen. John Glenn announces in Youngstown that he will seek re-election to the U.S. Senate, noting that he is a founding member of the congressional Steel Caucus.

Former 17th District Congressman Lyle Williams says he will not challenge U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant to regain his seat in the House.

Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says he will continue to lobby for a federal building downtown despite a judicial panel’s opinion that locating a U.S. District Court in the city is unnecessary.

The Youngstown Home Rule Charter Review Commission discusses increasing counci salaries and abolishing the post of council aides.

1971: A four-year-old girl, Tangela Gibson, is found raped and murdered in her bed in her parents’ apartment in the Westlake Terrace.

Mayor Jack C. Hunter has apparently abandoned plans to rehabilitate Central Square by creating a grade separation at Federal Street and Wick-Market after cost estimates for such a project soar. Alternate plans for the square are under study.

Five Mahoning Valley residents receive Freedoms Foundation Awards, including Peter J. Beckwith, a Poland Seminary High School senior, for his patriotic public address. Dr. Jack Schreiber of Canfield also wins a medal for his address, “Can We Really Save America?”

If the Mahoning County Courthouse and jail were to switch to its own heating plant, the initial cost would be $187,000 and annual costs would range from $16,000 to $38,400.

1961: Ten Youngstown high school students are among 43 seniors from Mahoning, Columbiana, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties who finished in the top 5 percent in the annual Ohio scholarship tests given by the Ohio Department of Education.

Dr. O.L. Reid, former superintendent of Youngstown schools and a professor at Youngstown University, dies at his home in Northampton, Mass. He was 85.

The Citizens Committee on Services to Delinquent Children meets with Mahoning County commissioners and recommends increasing the Juvenile Court budget from $104,000 in 1960 to $162,920 in 1961 to provide sorely needed services for juveniles.

1936:Leroy Milligan a youthful steel worker, admits to killing Earl Wilson, whose burning body was found near Applegate Road. He described Wilson as a “voodoo doctor” who put a hex on him to develop a degenerative relationship.

Helen Powers will appear as Ida Tarbell, former student and teacher at Poland Seminary, when 50 pupils of Poland Union Grade School present a “Pageant of Poland.” Raymond Mellinger will portray William McKinley.