Years Ago

Today is Friday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2012. There are 332 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1865: President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens hold a shipboard peace conference off the Virginia coast; the talks deadlock over the issue of Southern autonomy.

1913: The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, is ratified.

1924: The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, dies in Washington, D.C., at age 67.

1930: The chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigns for health reasons. (He dies just over a month later.)

1943: During World War II, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sinks after being hit by a German torpedo; of the more than 900 men aboard, only some 230 survive.

1959: Rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson die in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

An American Airlines Lockheed Electra crashes into New York’s East River, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.

1966: The Soviet probe Luna 9 becomes the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.

1972: The XI Olympic Winter Games open in Sapporo, Japan.

1991: The rate for a first-class postage stamp rises to 29 cents.

1998: Texas executes Karla Faye Tucker, 38, for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she is the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: The Ohio Department of Transportation is taking immediate action to correct a series of large bumps that have surfaced along Interstate 80 from the Pennsylvania line to the Ohio Turnpike, a 15-mile section of road that was resurfaced twice, in 1984 and 1985, at a total cost of $19.9 million.

The Salem Humane Society removes 45 dogs, three ferrets, five cats and nine hermit crabs from a 36-year-old woman’s feces-littered home in Guilford, Columbiana County. Twenty-three dogs and 17 other animals were removed from the same home by the Youngstown Humane Society eight months earlier.

Youngstown Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says he’s angry about the stalling tactics in the Ohio House that are blocking the elimination of one of the city’s three municipal judgeships.

1972: Youngstown police are questioning a 39-year-old Garfield Street man who said he shot a 9th grade Hillman Junior High student because he thought the boy and two girls were trying to enter his home. The boy is in South Side Hospital with a wound of the back.

Campbell city employees are being paid for the first time since Dec. 20 as the result of passage by city council of a 90-day appropriations.

Ken Aspromonte, new manager of the Cleveland Indians, dons a traditional Indian feathered headdress during an appearance at the Voyager in downtown Youngstown to show that he is the boss in the Tribe teepee.

1962: Don W. Frease, 64, widely known Ohio steel executive, will become president and chief executive of Sharon Steel Corp.

Youngstown police arrest four men who were accused of betting on high scores on a bowling machine in the Modena Garden, 1933 Hillman St.

Youngstown Patrolman William Hegedusich spots two men in their green Chevy getaway car about an hour after they robbed Check Beverage on Wilson Avenue of $40. The robbers are pulled over after Hegedusich calls for backup.

1937: Complete rehabilitation of the Brier Hill plant of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. is in sight as workers startto repair Grace furnace, out of commission since 1930.

The national resources committee recommends the immediate expenditure of $50,000 to further the study of a canal that would link the Ohio River and Lake Erie via the Mahoning and Beaver rivers.