Years Ago

Today is Saturday, April 7, the 98th day of 2012. There are 268 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1788: An expedition led by Gen. Rufus Putnam establishes a settlement at present-day Marietta, Ohio.

1798: The Mississippi Territory is created by an act of Congress, with Natchez as the capital.

1862: Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

1922: The Teapot Dome scandal has its beginnings as Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall signs a secret deal to lease U.S. Navy petroleum reserves to his friends, oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny.

1927: The image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover are transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television.

1962: Nearly 1,200 Cuban exiles tried by Cuba for their roles in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion are convicted of treason.

1972: Mobster Joe Gallo is shot to death by rival gangsters during his 43rd birthday celebration at a New York City restaurant.

1978: President Jimmy Carter announces he is deferring development of the neutron bomb, a high-radiation weapon.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Various police authorities meet at the Austintown Township Police Department to compare notes about the slayings of five women who were prostitutes who frequented truck stops in Austintown.

Robert Carano, executive director of the Trumbull County Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the bureau drew an estimated $1.4 million in tourism revenue to the county in the first three months of 1987.

Former Congressman Lyle Williams has been appointed chief of external affairs in the Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

1972: The Youngstown Board of Education approves appointment of a task force to evaluate the Hayes Middle School discipline situation and report within 30 days.

Hubbard’s Steve Bartolin throws a no-hitter to lead Youngstown State University’s Penguins to a 7-0 win over Case Western Reserve at Pemberton Park. YSU senior Gary Balakoff, also of Hubbard, throws a three-hitter in a 2-0 win in the doubleheader.

General Motors Corp. announces the recall of 130,000 1972 Chevrolet Vegas to correct a carburetor problem that could cause an engine fire.

1962: State agents raid Big Jim’s Barbeque, a notorious cheat spot on Short Street, but find it empty; two Campbell policemen chased the patrons away minutes before state agents arrived.

An auto containing 10 teenagers returning from a dance in New Middletown runs off Route 90 three miles south of Poland, injuring all, three seriously.

1937: Two gunmen club a clerk unconscious during a robbery at a dairy store at 257 W. Federal St. and terrorize 25 customers, including a dozen school girls, before escaping with $200.

Sheriff Ralph Elser raids three inns west and south of Youngstown, making two arrests and confiscating five marble boards and a number of lottery books.

Eight Youngstown police officers have been assigned to the Youngstown Police Department’s new motorcycle patrol, but on its first day of operation, the squad makes no traffic arrests.