Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 4, the fourth day of 2012. There are 362 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1821: The first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, dies in Emmitsburg, Md.

1904: The Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, rules that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and can enter the United States freely; however, the court stops short of declaring them U.S. citizens.

1951: During the Korean War, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces recapture the city of Seoul.

1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the goals of his “Great Society” in his State of the Union Address.

1974: President Richard M. Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: A division of CSX Corp. purchases 84 acres of farmland along Lyntz Townline Road in expectation of expanding an adjacent auto-transfer terminal to handle cars from the General Motors complex.

A two-tier wage scale under which starting workers would be paid less is proposed for New Castle’s Public Works Department as part of a new contract that is being negotiated.

Youngstown Patrolman Dennis Tyler, a former president of the Fraternal Order of Police, says he lives in Boardman and he dares city officials to fire him for violating the city’s residency law.

1972: Police Chief Donald G. Baker says men who hold commissions as special officers will have their commissions revoked for failure to complete a state-required peace officers training course.

Teachers in the Austintown Local School District approve by a “nearly unanimous” vote a new contract that will increase the base salary to $6,600.

Paul Smith of Lake Milton receives a rare letter from his son, Navy Lt. Bradley E. Smith, an aviator who has been a prisoner of war in North Vietnam since 1965.

1962: The first phase of Police Chief William R. Golden’s all-out war on crime in Youngstown is put into effect with a directive that all policemen use the state’s tough new anti-gambling law to arrest racketeers.

A 1950 Buick owned by James Fetty of 117 Glenaven Ave. is set ablaze, the apparent work of the South Side’s fire bug.

1937: Retail trade in Youngstown in 1936 may have reached and passed the $90 million mark, according to census figures released in Washington.

Crowded churches greet Youngstown ministers on the first Sunday after the New Year, which is designated “Go to Church Sunday.”

Edith L. Fortney, director and social service nurse of the Youngstown Humane Society, is named by Domestic Relations Judge Henry P. Beckenbach to be the girls’ referee in common pleas court.

The drinking public purchased over $1.5 million worth of liquor from four state liquor stores in Mahoning County during 1936, estimates show, an increase of $500,000 over 1935, when there were three stores.