Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, March 29, the 88th day of 2011. There are 277 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1861: President Abraham Lincoln orders plans for a relief expedition to sail to South Carolina’s Fort Sumter, which is still in the hands of Union forces despite repeated demands by the Confederacy that it be turned over.

1867: Britain’s Parliament passes the British North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.

1882: The Knights of Columbus is chartered in Connecticut.

1943: World War II rationing of meat, fats and cheese begins.

1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. (They are executed in June 1953.)

1971: Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is convicted of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (Calley ends up serving three years under house arrest.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Dr. Kenneth E. Young, director of the Institute for Learning in Retirement at American University, tells 876 degree recipients at Youngstown State University that YSU is remaining true to its roots as an urban university while adapting to demands of a new age.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who is seeking to have the office of county Commissioner Thomas Battin declared vacant, asks the Ohio Supreme Court to order a physical and mental examination of Battin. Nine months after being injured in an automobile accident, Battin remains in a nursing home.

1971: Crime in Youngs–town shows an increase of 28 percent during 1970, according to the FBI’s uniform crime report.

The Metropolitan Savings & Loan Co. cuts its interest rate on passbook savings from 5 percent to 43/4 percent.

1961: U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan is predicting approval of President Kennedy’s request for $50,000 for a resurvey of the proposed canal to link Lake Erie and the Ohio River.

1936: After a fight of more than two decades, the Youngstown district is approaching what may be the last step in obtaining water transportation by Lake Erie to Ohio River canal. A delegation of more than 60 officials and prominent citizens will be meeting in Washington with the U.S. Army Board of Engineers.

Ohio’s committee on marriage and divorce recommends blood tests for men and women contemplating matrimony and increasing the legal age for marriage by two years, to 18 for females and 20 for males without parental consent.