Years Ago

Today is Monday, April 2, the 93rd day of 2012. There are 273 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon lands in present-day Florida.

1800: Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, in Vienna.

1912: The just-completed RMS Titanic leaves Belfast to begin its sea trials eight days before the start of its ill-fated maiden voyage.

1917: President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

1942: Glenn Miller and his orchestra record “American Patrol” at the RCA Victor studios in Hollywood.

1956: The soap operas “As the World Turns” and “The Edge of Night” premiere on CBS television.

1968: The science-fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, has its world premiere in Washington, D.C.

1982: Several thousand troops from Argentina seize the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seizes the islands back the following June.)

1992: Mob boss John Gotti is convicted in New York of murder and racketeering; sentenced to life, he dies in prison.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Robert D. Parks, already serving two life sentences in state prison in the DiBlasio murder case in Girard, is charged with aggravated murder in the Portage County death of Walter Packner, a Wells Fargo guard from Youngstown whose body was found in a Plain Township wooded lot.

The four-story Haney Furniture store, a downtown landmark in New Castle, is heavily damaged by fire.

Mahoning County commissioners dole out an additional $516,000 that has been certified for the general fund, including $200,000 for Sheriff Edward Nemeth’s department to avoid the lay off of deputies. About $29,000 will go to Judge Leo P. Morley to cover 8 percent pay raises for his staff that were ordered by the 7th District Court of Appeals.

1972: The Youngstown district’s basic steel industry, recovering from a long siege of economic sickness, is bounding back, with local mills operating at about 71 percent of capacity.

The Youngstown Park and Recreation Commission agrees to assume ownership and maintenance of about 4 acres of a 108-acre, $2.5 million housing project being planned by Housing Opportunities Inc. on Youngstown’s East Side.

The Howland Board of Education, faced with more students than its schools can hold, is considering year-round school as an alternative to building new classrooms.

1962: Karen Wilding of Rochester, N.Y., formerly of Youngstown, is one of five coeds killed when their car collides with two semi-tractors in Yulee, Fla., as the girls were returning to Duke University from spring break.

One man is arrested for assault and battery and hindering an inspection when he attacks a state liquor enforcement agent during one of a series of weekend raids on taverns by agents and city police .

1937: John Brenner, Youngstown jeweler for almost a half century, dies at his home at 287 Park Ave. He was 93.

About 1,300 miners in the Youngstown district are affected by a nationwide strike by the United Mine Workers.