Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Jan. 7, the seventh day of 2012. There are 359 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1608: An accidental fire devastates the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia Colony.

1789: The first U.S. presidential election is held. Americans vote for electors who, a month later, choose George Washington to be the nation’s first president.

1942: The Japanese siege of Bataan begins during World War II. (The fall of Bataan three months later is followed by the notorious Death March.)

1972: Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist are sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Raymond Terlesky, a 54-year-old General Motors employee who lives in Boardman, claims the $5 million jackpot in the Ohio “Super Lotto.”

Trumbull County Commissioner Christopher S. Lardis says he supports a request from the Trumbull County Convention and Visitors Bureau to increase the county’s motel tax from 2.5 to 3 percent.

The owners of a Boardman apartment complex that received free water and sewer service for a decade agrees to pay Youngstown more than $100,000 in fees, penalties and interest.

1972: Mahoning County Auditor Stephen Olenick says he will ask the county prosecutor to issue a ruling on whether the use of the Canfield Fairgrounds for nonfair activities such as auto racing, circuses and auto thrill shows are at odds with the fair board’s tax-exempt status.

In an effort to address overcrowding at the Mahoning County jail, Judge Sidney J. Rigelhaupt and county Prosecutor Vincent Gilmartin agree to hold daily court sessions a half hour early, at 8:30 a.m., to hear the cases of 37 men and women who have been held in lieu of bond since October.

1962: William P. Nelson, 17, an Ursuline High senior, is one of 10 winners of Lyndon B. Johnson Science Scholars who meet the president before leaving for a seminar on space technology in Australia.

More than five miles of Interstate 80, including bridges over Lake Milton, will open Jan. 27.

The Youngstown district’s biggest steel plant, U.S. Steel Corp.’s Ohio Works, has widened its product range so much that it has become virtually a speciality steel plant while retaining its conventional lines, writes Vindicator Industrial Editor George R. Reiss.

1937: Mahoning County Engineer Robert J. Schomer drops 170 men from the payroll of his maintenance department until spring and says he will operate with a skeleton crew of 30 in an effort to save $20,000.

The names of 43 business executives in the Youngstown district are on the list of people who received more than $15,000 in compensation during 1935 that was released by Congress. Highest among them was R. J. Wysor, a vice president of Republic Steel Corp. at $69,768; next was Frank Purnell, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., at $60,200.