Years ago

Today is Saturday, March 10, the 70th day of 2012. There are 296 days left in the year. Daylight-saving time begins Sunday at 2 a.m. local time. Clocks go forward one hour.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1496: Christopher Columbus concludes his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he leaves Hispaniola for Spain.

1785: Thomas Jefferson is appointed America’s minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.

1848: The Senate ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ends the Mexican-American War.

1876: The first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone takes place in Boston as his assistant hears Bell say, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.”

1906: About 1,100 miners in northern France are killed by a coal-dust explosion.

1933: A magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered off Long Beach, Calif., results in 120 deaths.

1948: The body of the anti-Communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, is found in the garden of Czernin Palace in Prague.

1949: Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally,” is convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason. (She serves 12 years in prison.)

1969: James Earl Ray pleads guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (Ray later repudiates that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.)

1972: The three-day National Black Political Convention convenes in Gary, Ind.

1980: “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower is shot to death at his home in Purchase, N.Y. (Tarnower’s former lover, Jean Harris, is convicted of his murder; she serves nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.)

1985: Konstantin U. Chernenko, who was the Soviet Union’s leader for just 13 months, dies at age 73.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: A commitment by U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Lambros to permanently preside over court in Youngstown is seen as greatly increasing the chances for construction of a new federal courthouse in downtown Youngstown.

ODOT will replace 7,600 feet of metal guardrail along I-80 with concrete barriers as the first phase of an effort to protect Meander Reservoir from chemical spills.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Gary Van Brocklin tells Mahoning County commissioners he “might find it difficult to defend them” if the Cafaro Co. sues over the placement of Human Services offices anywhere except Cafaro’s Garland Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side.

1972: Classes are returning to near normal at Hayes Junior High School, where some parents withheld their children to protest discipline policies and where teachers walked out for an afternoon claiming lack of support from the administration.

Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter is seeking $100,000 in state matching funds to buy new police department radio equipment.

Negotiations resume in the week-long strike by UAW workers at the General Motors Lordstown plant, with neither side issuing a progress report.

1962: Some 15 students of Immaculate Conception School escape injury when their bus is struck by a car while a student was being discharged in front of 619 Jacobs Road.

Melvin F. Ogram, assistant secretary and assistant treasurer of General Fireproofing Co., will head the Youngstown Community Chest campaign in the fall.

A second-half flurry sparks Florida A&M to a 74-60 victory over Youngstown University’s Penguins.

1937: The Republic Steel Corp. announces a sliding scale of vacation periods based on years of service with a maximum of two full weeks for employees with 15 years or more of service.

Henry A. Roemer, Youngstown area steel executive, will add chairman of the board of Empire Sheet & Tin Plate Co. of Mansfield to his numerous positions in the industry.

Assistant Postmaster General W.W. Howes says examinations for nine candidates for Youngstown postmaster are likely to run through May.