Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2012. There are 335 days left in the year.

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On this date in:

1865: Gen. Robert E. Lee is named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.

1917: During World War I, Germany serves notice it is beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1929: Revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his family are expelled from the Soviet Union.

1944: During World War II, U.S. forces begin a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

1945: Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion, is shot by an American firing squad in France.

1961: NASA launches Ham the Chimp aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral; Ham is recovered safely from the Atlantic Ocean following his 161/2-minute suborbital flight.

1971: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blast off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

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1987: D.J. Ogilvie scores 17 points and Herb William 16 as they lead Boardmen to a 72-55 win over Austintown Fitch, giving Boardman a 13-3 record and first place in the Steel Valley Conference.

Speaking at the 72nd Mahoning Valley McKinley Club banquet in Niles, Cleveland Mayor George V. Voinovich says decaying communities can be revitalized if political leaders draw on all of a community’s resources, rather than relying on governmental assistance.

Warren City Council may be asked to place a proposal to ban X-rated videos on the ballot following a two-hour hearing organized by the Committee Against Obscenity.

1972: Youngstown State University’s bid for revenge against Akron falls a point shy as the Penguins lose 53-54 in a game that will likely cost the Penguins any post season NCAA tournament consideration.

Dr. Walter B. Turner, 88, widely known Youngstown general surgeon for 62 years and one of the oldest charter members of Youngstown Lodge 615, F&AM, dies at the Park Vista Home.

1962: Harold Patterson, 40, of Youngstown is killed at Streetsboro when a load of steel on the truck he was driving becomes loose and rolls forward, crushing him in his cab.

The Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce will strive to have Route 11, the Lake Erie-to-Ohio River Highway, put on the federal interstate system.

1937: About 3,000 Youngstowners from all walks of life and all political camps attend the President’s Birthday Ball at Stambaugh Auditorium, an event that raised $3,500 for the fight against infantile paralysis.

Ohio lawmakers say there is no prospect of balancing the state’s budget without additional revenue. They suggest tax increases of $10 million.

Six registered nurses from Youngstown leave by bus and train for flood-ravaged Portsmouth. They are Rebecca Rosensteel, Helen Brislane, Caroline Geidner, Mildred Keeling, Lenora Starr Hazlett and Clara Culver.