Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2012. There are 316 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1803: Congress votes to accept Ohio’s borders and constitution.

1878: Thomas Edison receives a U.S. patent for “an improvement in phonograph or speaking machines.”

1881: Kansas prohibits the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

1945: During World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines begin landing on Iwo Jima, where they commence a successful month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.

1997: Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries, dies at age 92.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Petitions circulated by John Pavlic, a Mesopotamia Township trustee, to place a county sales tax referendum on the November ballot are turned in to county Auditor Ed Bush.

City Council pumps $350,000 into an interest free loan fund that Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says will be used to lure an out-of-state company to Youngstown that is expected to create 125 manufacturing jobs.

1972: A collision between a propane tanker truck and a bus and two cars on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Beaver Falls injures 22 people and causes closing of a section of the Turnpike.

David M. Hartsock, 57, of Warren, a 30-year veteran of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, is named chief of the Boardman Township Police Department, effective April 1.

1962: Five Youngstown University coeds are nominated to reign as queen of the 12th annual ROTC Military Ball: Nancy Dell’Arco, Kaaren Kasmer, Susan Brecht, Carole Walton and Phyllis Zerella.

1937: Ballots received in The Vindicator’s poll show voters are opposed to President Roosevelt’s Supreme Court revamping, 3,071 to 568.

With 68 of the Youngstown district’s 83 open hearths in operation, steel production is approaching 82 percent of capacity, and if some units did not need maintenance or rebuilding, area mills would be running at the 100 percent mark to meet national demand.