Years Ago

Today is Monday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2011. There are 362 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1521: Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X.

The Delaware House and Senate vote to oppose secession from the Union.

1911: The first postal savings banks are opened by the U.S. Post Office. (The banks are abolished in 1966.)

1961: President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the United States is formally terminating diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.

1993: President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign a historic nuclear missile-reduction treaty in Moscow.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Trumbull County Sheriff Richard A. Jakmas said he still plans to give his staff 6 percent raises awarded by a state arbitrator, even though it means the department could run out of money by year’s end.

Architects of Youngstown’s downtown redevelopment efforts are caught off guard by an announcement that the May Co. will merge the operations of Youngstown based Strouss Co. with its Kaufmann’s division.

1971: Fire destroys the 45-year-old New York Quality Rye Baking Co. at 1941 Glenwood Ave. Damage is estimated at $50,000 and will close down one of Youngstown’s favorite bakeries indefinitely.

Ed Bush, fired as data process director by Trumbull County commissioners, says he would welcome a grand jury investigation of the office as threatened by Commissioner John McCloskey. Bush says McCloskey and fellow Commissioner Gary Thompson don‘t understand county finances.

1961: Mahoning County Sheriff Ray T. Davis, in office for only two days, is bemoaning a shortage of manpower and a lack of clearly marked keys for everything but the cell doors.

1936: Mayor Lionel Evans instructs Law Director Vern B. Thomas to instruct department heads that mileage and depreciation allowances for private cars used in city business will be temporarily suspended, pending passage of a new ordinance.

Henry P. Fletcher, chairman of the Republican Party, says the decision by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to deliver the State of the Union speech at night and to have it broadcast on radio, reduces presidential duty “to the level of a political speech.” The Republicans demand equal air time from NBC.