Years Ago

Today is Thursday, March 31, the 90th day of 2011. There are 275 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1811: German scientist Robert Bunsen, who helped develop the Bunsen burner, is born.

1917: The United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.

1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.

1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson shocks the country by announcing at the conclusion of a broadcast address on Vietnam that he would not seek re-election.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Sunday’s high of 82 degrees is an Easter record in Youngstown.

Twins Vickie and Wendy Andrews of McDonald graduate together from Youngstown State University, where they attended all the same classes and received identical bachelor degrees in education. But come August, Wendy will be moving to Kansas City, Kansas, where she hopes to land a teaching job.

1971: The chief engineer of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District says state water quality tests contradict a federal finding that there was arsenic in the water supply.

The Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce passes a resolution urging early action on construction of the proposed Hubbard Expressway.

Three bandits kidnap a Falls Ave. man from a South Side phone booth and use his car in a hold up of the Lawson Dairy Store on Mahoning Ave.

1961: The Parks and Recreation Commission says it is willing to consider City Council’s hiring recommendations for a special improvements program financed by council, but will not relinquish its hiring authority to councilmen.

A 37-year-old nun, Sister Mary of Fatima, obstetrics supervisor for St. Joseph Hospital, dies three hours after being struck by a car in Moncrest Street.

1936: Six Mahoning Valley mayors testify in Washington in favor of a Lake Erie-Ohio River Canal: Lionel Evans of Youngstown; Dana Bailey, Newton Falls; T.A. Roberts, Struthers; Fred Williams, Niles; John Borak, Campbell, and G.A. Bjorson, Warren.

JoJo, a souvenir alligator from Florida who disappeared in the Sunshine Avenue home of Mrs. Agnes Young for seven months, is found alive and well in the basement. The family’s joy at the prodigal gator’s return is short-lived; the family cat, Nicholas, takes Jojo for an interloper and launches a fatal attack.

Advertisement: The bar at the new Palace Grill, Youngstown’s finest restaurant and bar, seats 24 on leather padded stools; the front is faced in stylish black carrara glass.