Years Ago

Today is Friday, April 13, the 104th day of 2012. There are 262 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1742: Handel’s “Messiah” has its first public performance in Dublin, Ireland.

1861: At the start of the Civil War, Fort Sumter in South Carolina falls to Confederate forces.

1964: Sidney Poitier becomes the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for “Lilies of the Field.”

Vindicator files

1987: Thomas J. Carney, chairman of the Mahoning County commissioners, says he would like to see a performance audit of all county offices.

The Youngstown Board of Control will consider payment of a $5,000 fine for a toxic spill at the city’s Albert Street Industrial Park, but still at issue is who will pay for a federal cleanup of PCBs at the park that cost $450,000.

The Vindicator adds an outdoors columnist, Scott Shalaway, to its Sunday pages.

1972: Three Valley youths win National Merit Scholarships. They are Kevin L. Creager of Canfield High School, John J. Manley of Girard and Ursuline High School and Suzanne E. Wagner of Hubbard.

Mayor Jack C. Hunter says that the Downtown Post Office will remain open even after construction of a proposed $6.6 million Meridian Road postal center.

Atty. Don L. Hanni, local chairman of U.S. Sen. Henry Jackson’s presidential campaign, says the Democratic senator from Washington state will stop in Youngstown for a breakfast meeting while on his way between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Susan Leskovyansky, a junior at Cardinal Mooney High School, is the first teen girl ever selected to the National Council of Camp Fire Girls.

1962: Mobster Jasper J. “Fats” Aiello is fined $50 and has his driver’s license suspended for 90 days by Judge John J. Leskovyansky.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for West Branch Dam and Reservoir will be April 27 at the reservoir construction area near Wayland, Ohio.

A 19-year-old Canfield youth is arrested for a string of nine burglaries at Canfield Plaza stores and two counts of auto theft.

“The world is a sorry mess,” Nitish C. Laharry of Calcutta, India, president-elect of Rotary International, tells delegates at the Rotary annual conference in Hotel Pick-Ohio in Youngstown.

Ground is broken on Henricks Road in Wickliffe for the new offices of McKay Machine Co.

1937: A block of 33,155 shares of Strouss-Hirshberg Co. common stock will be offered for sale to finance construction of an addition to the company’s main store.

Fifth Ward Councilman Carl Fishel says during a council meeting that he has received complaints about garbage collection; some on council have suggested that the city take over collection from a private contractor.

Ten men are hurt, four seriously, when a 10-ton ladle of white-hot steel overturns at the Mingo mill of Carnegie-Illinois Steel Co.

Joe Dallet, Youngstown Communist leader, remains in a French jail, serving a 20-day sentence for trying to cross the French border into Spain, where he was to lead a band of Communists in the Spanish civil war.