Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2012. There are 331 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: Electors choose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

1861: Delegates from six southern states that seceded from the Union meet in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America.

1932: New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opens the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid.

1941: The United Service Organizations (USO) comes into existence.

1962: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is founded in Memphis, Tenn., by entertainer Danny Thomas.

A rare conjunction of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn occurs.

1972: Mariner 9, orbiting Mars, transmits images of the red planet.

1974: Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1976: More than 23,000 people die when a severe earthquake strikes Guatemala with a magnitude of 7.5, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

1982: President Ronald Reagan announces a plan to eliminate all medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

1983: Pop singer-musician Karen Carpenter, 32, dies in Downey, Calif.

1987: Pianist Liberace dies at his Palm Springs, Calif., home at age 67.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: LTV Corp. announces that its operating income rose during the fourth quarter of 1986, but charges stemming from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy brought its quarterly net loss to $453 million.

School levies in Hubbard, Champion and Columbiana Village and an income tax increase in East Liverpool all go down to defeat in special elections.

Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties are allotted 21 percent of the $25 million that will be available n a state program to help first time home buyers.

1972: General Motors Corp., the Mahoning Valley’s largest employer, added nearly $293 million to the Youngstown district’s economy through payroll and local purchases in 1971, GM reports.

B&B Construction Co. of Youngstown is the apparent low bidder for construction of a 50-unit apartment building in Campbell. The general contract was $602,000.

The U.S. Steel Corp. will begin preparations to start up its long-idle Ohio Works recalling part of its idled force of 2,700.

1962: Mahoning County commissioners are told it will cost $39,360 to bring the county jail up to maximum security standards.

The bug racket in Mahoning County grosses nearly $4.5 million a year based on police and racket sources and federal tax records.

1937: L.H. Copeland, weather observer at Millport, Columbiana County, reports that no other month since 1891 saw as much rain fall as January, with a total of 9.72 inches.

Girard health officials say they are contemplating closing Girard schools in response to an outbreak of influenza.

Ohio Gov. Martin L. Davey voices a threat of a veto for any poor relief bill that fails to distribute funds on the basis of need. He says the relief bill of 1936 was a “monstrosity” that distributed money to counties that did not need it.

The Mahoning County Red Cross passes its quota for flood relief with $36,235 on deposit to be sent to the national organization in Washington, D.C.