Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, March 27, the 87th day of 2012. There are 279 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sights present-day Florida.

1836: The first Mormon temple is dedicated in Kirtland, Ohio.

1912: First lady Helen Herron Taft and the wife of Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Viscountess Chinda, plant the first two of 3,000 cherry trees given as a gift by the mayor of Tokyo on the north bank of Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin.

1964: Alaska is hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunamis that kill about 130 people.

1968: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth, dies in a plane crash.

1977: A KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashes into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife, killing 583 people.

Vindicator files

1987: Youngstown Mayoral challenger Atty. James Corbett criticizes Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro for focusing on the redevelopment of downtown Youngstown while ignoring city neighborhoods.

The Mill Creek Park board of commissioners approves a balanced budget of $3.35 million for 1987.

1972: Production of the Chevrolet Vega resumes at the Lordstown General Motors complex after the UAW votes to end its three-week strike.

The chilly waters of Mill Creek near the Old Mill nearly claim the lives of two young men who fell into the creek. Bill McGowan, 20, fell in the creek while making a film and saved himself. George McLaughlin, 16, fell in while trying to retrieve a bicycle tire and was saved by Edward Harper, 35, of Canfield.

1962: Youngstown Mayor Harry Savasten says the city has a portfolio of public works projects that would put hundreds to work under President Kennedy’s proposed $600 million public works anti-recession program.

The management of General Fireproofing Co. wins six of nine seats on the board to beat back a takeover attempt by New York financier Alfons B. Lands. Edward A. Purnell, board chairman, announces that he is resigning because of ill health.

1937: The pros and cons of Youngstown council’s proposed licensing of contractors in the city are aired during a four-hour hearing by council’s legislative committee.

Thirty Youngstown College students are conducting a survey of jaywalking downtown on the Saturday before Easter and will make recommendations to the traffic department, while nearly 100 Boy Scouts are handing out paper “tags” to careless pedestrians.

Youngstown city engineer Albert Haenny estimates that the city could save $25,000 a year by replacing contract garbage collection in the city with a municipal department.