Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Feb. 12, the 43rd day of 2012. There are 323 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1809: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, is born in present-day Larue County, Ky.

1908: The first round-the-world automobile race begins in New York. (It ends in Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas Flyer, declared the winners over teams from Germany and Italy.)

1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded.

1912: Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicates, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

1940: The radio play “The Adventures of Superman” debuts with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.

1942: Painter Grant Wood, creator of “American Gothic,” dies in Iowa City, Iowa, a day before his 51st birthday.

1973: Operation Homecoming begins with the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict.

1999: The Senate votes to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Youngstown City Council approves 6 percent pay raises for management and other nonunion city employees despite objections that the pay hikes could increase the number of projected layoffs. The raises match those given to union employees.

Youngstown 3rd Ward Councilman George McKelvey calls for an audit of the city’s minority loan program, saying there’s cause for concern that some loans are not being repaid.

New Castle police use a stun gun to subdue a 28-year-old burglary suspect from Union Township. It is the first time the new weapon was used since being issued to 39 officers a month earlier.

Boardman High School’s drug and alcohol abuse counselor, Jim Guterba, says some students are going to smokeless tobacco as an alternative to cigarettes. “It’s a disgusting habit, says Guterba, “[but] it’s really picking up.”

1972: Two Warren men are arrested by the FBI within hours of a $14,616 robbery of the Youngstown road Branch of the Union Savings and Loan Co., but a third suspect remains at large. About $9,600 of the loot has been recovered.

Youngstown police arrest five boys 14 and 15 years old after a foot chase that started when the boys tried to rob the Chinese Food Store at 1745 Market Street.

A 21-year-old Sacramento Calif. Man is charges with second-degree murder in the death of 2-year-old Charles Cory Westbrook, who was beaten and died at the Holiday West Motel in North Jackson.

1962: Paul Lamonge of Niles is found guilty of two counts in the Warren sewage contract scandal and faces terms of 1 to 30 years in prison.

The first Youngstown bombing of the year damages several East End buildings, routing residents of the Cleveland Hotel at 256 E. Boardman where the bomb was planted. The hotel is next to where Mahoning County‘s most notorious barbut game was headquartered until the murder of Vincent DeNiro in July.

1937: A general wage increase of 80 cents a day to all employees of Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp. in the Youngstown-Pittsburgh district is being sought, which would bring the minimum wage for an 8-hour day to $5.

Two bills are introduced for revamping Ohio’s 22 congressional districts to 24. One would limit the 19th District to parts of Mahoning and Trumbull counties, the other would designate Mahoning County as the new 24th District.

General Fireproofing Co. enjoyed its best year in 1936 since 1929, showing a net profit of $564,621, and increase of nearly $170,000 over 1935.

The Vindicator is one of 700 newspapers coast to coast that will conduct a poll on President Roosevelt’s proposal to revamp the Supreme Court.