Years Ago
Today is Monday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2011. There are 334 days left in the year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On this date in:
1606: Guy Fawkes, convicted of treason for his part in the “Gunpowder Plot” against the English Parliament and King James I, is executed.
1865: Gen. Robert E. Lee is named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.
1917: During World War I, Germany serves notice it is beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1929: Revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his family are expelled from the Soviet Union.
1944: During World War II, U.S. forces begin a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1945: Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, becomes the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he is shot by an American firing squad in France.
1950: President Harry S. Truman announces he has ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.
1958: The United States enters the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.
1961: NASA launches Ham the Chimp aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral; Ham is recovered safely from the Atlantic Ocean after a 161/2-minute suborbital flight.
1971: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blast off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
2000: An Alaska Airlines jet plummets into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.
VINDICATOR FILES
1986: Coffee prices skyrocket, with a pound of Maxwell House going from $2.48 per pound to $3.70 per pound in area supermarkets.
Dignitaries including Gov. Richard F. Celeste attend dedication ceremonies for Meshel Hall at Youngstown State University, named for state Sen. Harry Meshel.
1971: The Youngstown district’s back-to-work movement is gaining momentum, with steel operations reaching 80 percent of capacity and the General Motors plant at Lordstown approaching an output of 100 Vegas an hour.
An Akron truck driver, James B. Doyle, 32, dies after his rig carrying hydrogen collides with a coal truck at Routes 224 and 45 and bursts into flames.
1961: Agents of the FBI join an inquiry into the Trumbull County commissioners election in which Dr. W.A. James retained his seat with a narrow victory over challenger Joseph Baldine.
More than 2,000 volunteers are canvassing Mahoning County for the March of Dimes.
1936: The Rev. L.C. Gainor arrives in Youngstown to take over the pastorate of St. Dominic Church. The Rev. Gregory Scholz leaves for Detroit, where he will be the pastor of St. Dominic Church there.
Mayor Lionel Evans opens an inquiry into city insurance policies totalling $1.8 million in coverage under former Mayor Mark Moore, much of which was apparently not authorized by city council.