Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, March 7, the 67th day of 2012. There are 299 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1793: During the French Revolutionary Wars, France declares war on Spain.

1850: In a three-hour speech to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts endorses the Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union.

1876: Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his telephone.

1911: President William Howard Taft orders 20,000 troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the Mexican Revolution.

1912: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen arrives in Hobart, Australia, where he dispatches telegrams announcing his success in leading the first expedition to the South Pole the previous December.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Speaking to a group of retired Boardman teachers, Superintendent Richard Selby says Boardman voters do not seem to want to support the schools the way they had when many of those teachers were in the classroom.

Opponents of Hillside Hospital’s proposed $13.2 million renovation and expansion, including spokesmen for many of Trumbull County’s most influential companies, say the project should be rejected because of its high cost and a large number of unused hospital beds in the area.

1972: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Ernest P. Kline buys the state’s first lottery ticket, paying 50 cents for a chance in the first drawing, which will be March 15. He donates the ticket to a senior citizen group.

Hubbard City Council announces it could agree to no more than a 7.5 percent pay raise for city employees, including the cost of hospitalization and retirement benefits.

1962: U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown, chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, questions the National Park Service request for $75,000 to re-research the Battle of Gettysburg.

Atty. Kenneth M. Lloyd of Youngstown tells 450 people at the Ashtabula Playhouse that construction of the proposed Lake Erie-Ohio River canal would be a boon to the economy of Ashtabula.

1937: Downtown Youngs-town “bookie” joints, supposedly closed by police order, do a land-office business with the running of the $50,000 Widener Handicap at a Florida racetrack.

Youngstown city Health Commissioner Dr. W.W. Ryall says the Schick test which determines who is immune from diphtheria will be given to children in private and parochial schools.