Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2012. There are 307 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1844: A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton explodes as the ship was sailing on the Potomac River, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1911: President William Howard Taft nominates William H. Lewis to be the first black Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

1942: The heavy cruiser USS Houston and the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth come under attack by Japanese forces during the World War II Battle of Sunda Strait; both are sunk shortly after midnight. (The Houston lost 693 men while the Perth lost 353.)

1951: The Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., issues an interim report saying at least two major crime syndicates are operating in the U.S.

1993: A gun battle erupts at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents try to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians are killed as a 51-day standoff begins.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: A hearing officer recommends that an operating license be issued for a landfill at New Springfield if the owners can meet environmental safety requirements.

Youngstown’s chief fire inspector says it appears that vagrants who have been living in abandoned downtown buildings caused the fire that destroyed the former Livingston’s building on Federal Plaza West.

1972: A tentative agreement is reached between the RMI Co. in Niles and United Steel Workers Local 2155, ending a strike by the 600-member union that began Nov. 6.

Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana county residents contributed $40,000 during the Heart Association’s house-to-house canvass on “Heart Sunday.”

West Virginia Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. says he has received unconfirmed reports that as many at 90 people died when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through coal camps in Logan County.

1962: A broken high-pressure gas main catches fire in the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., creating a three-alarm fire to which 11 fire trucks and 60 crewmen were summoned.

Youngstown Mayor Harry Savasten will meet with union leaders to discuss replacing political appointees in the street and water departments. Savasten has said there are 10 or 20 “political has beens” he’d like to replace.

1937: Youngstown Traffic Commissioner Clarence J. Coppersmith announces a campaign against reckless driving and drunken drivers that is expected to be the most vigorous in the city’s history.

Former Youngstown Fire Chief Joseph Wallace, one of the best known men in Mahoning County, dies at his home, 123 Falls Ave., of complications after suffering several strokes.

The Ohio commission on marriage, divorce and separation suggests Ohio make divorce easier, but marriage more difficult, with an age limit of 20 for men and 18 for women.

The Tod Post of the Grand Army of the Republic will go on, although only three of an original 700 members survive. Their next session will be the last Thursday in March.