Years Ago

Today is Thursday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2011. There are 303 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1849: The U.S. Department of the Interior is established.

1931: President Herbert Hoover signs a congressional resolution making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States.

1945: The Allies fully secure the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II.

1961: King Hassan II accedes to the throne of Morocco, following the death of his father, King Mohammed V.

1991: Motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: The Kent State University Trumbull Campus is expected to add a new $1.7 million high technical building.

Three employees of Tamco Distributors are injured when a Tamarkin employee drives through a picket line at the company’s Victoria Road warehouse.

1971: A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that a man may not be imprisoned merely because he cannot afford to pay a fine could mean freedom for 27 men held in the Mahoning County Jail and 21 others who are scheduled to begin serving jail time.

The General Motors Lordstown complex, considered the world’s fastest and most highly automated automobile assembly line, is producing a new subcompact car every 45 seconds of its 16-hour work day.

1961: A citizens committee named to help develop a downtown renewals plan will help the Youngstown Board of Education to select a suitable downtown site for a new administration building.

City Council will receive legislation to establish a $350,000 community works program to help Youngstown’s unemployed while improving streets, sewers and ditches.

1936: The U.S. Board of Army Engineers announces that it is “not convinced of the advisability” of the proposed canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio River through Youngstown.

The body of a third victim is recovered from the Warren Hotel fire in downtown Warren. The dead are John McBane, 50; Owen Canole, 39, and Edna Wiles, 39.

Mayor Lionel Evans “plays hookey” from a city council meeting to join 450 other Welshmen in singing folk songs and hearing U.S. Sen. James J. Davis of Pennsylvania at the 45th annual St. David Day Banquet at the YMCA.