Years Ago

Today is Sunday, March 4, the 64th day of 2012. There are 302 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1681: England’s King Charles II grants a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later becomes Pennsylvania.

1789: The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York.

1858: Sen. James Henry Hammond of South Carolina declares “Cotton is king” in a speech to the U.S. Senate.

1861: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States.

1912: Groundbreaking takes place in New York for Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1917: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana takes her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

1952: Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis are married in California’s San Fernando Valley.

1977: Some 1,500 people are killed in an earthquake that shakes southern and eastern Europe.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: The County Commissioners Association of Ohio says it will hold its 1987 convention in King’s Island near Cincinnati rather than Trumbull County because Trumbull County does not have the facilities to accommodate the expected 500 people.

Terry M. Tranter, Cincinnati Democrat and chairman of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee, says a bill to eliminate one of three Youngstown Municipal judgeships will likely die in his committee.

1972: General Motors’ giant Lordstown plant is struck by 7,700 workers after nearly 20 hours of continuous negotiations fail to resolve the four-month-old dispute over production speeds.

Youngstown Municipal Airport registers a record low temperature for the date of -3 degrees, the same temperature as that of Anchorage, Alaska.

The Ohio Historical Society allocates $14,000 to restore a bottle-type kiln that was in operation from 1844 to 1939 at the former East Liverpool Pottery Co. It is one of only two such kilns surviving in Ohio.

1962: Mayor Harry Savasten says all future Youngstown city employees will be fingerprinted and undergo background checks to avoid the future hiring of people with criminal records.

The Friends of the Youngstown University Library launch their 24th annual fund drive.

Kay Kluz, director of District 20 of the United Steelworkers of America, which covers the Beaver Valley, says he will take an active role in seeking construction of a Lake Erie-Ohio River canal.

1937: Proposals to furnish free books to Ohio parochial school students and financial aid to the their parents continue to be discuss in two committees of the Ohio Senate.

A spectacular four-alarm fire destroys a wooden warehouse of the Republic Rubber Co. plant in Albert Street. The fire caused an estimated $25,000 in damage.

An automobile driven by Galen Elser, 19-year-old son of Sheriff Ralph Elser, strikes and kills John W. Reid, retired machinist, as he tries to cross Southern Boulevard in front of his home on his 75th birthday.