Years Ago

Today is Thursday, March 29, the 89th day of 2012. There are 277 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1882: The Knights of Columbus is chartered in Connecticut.

1912: British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, his expedition stranded in an Antarctic blizzard after failing to be the first to reach the South Pole, makes the last entry in his journal. (Scott and his four companions are presumed to have died shortly thereafter.)

1943: World War II rationing of meat, fats and cheese begins.

1971: Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is convicted of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (Calley ends up serving three years under house arrest.)

1973: The last United States combat troops leave South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Mayor Patrick Ungaro says layoffs being planned in April, especially those in the park department, are likely to be permanent and will put the city’s budget on firmer footing in 1988.

James P. Lottier Sr., former physical education director of the West Federal Street branch of the YMCA, is honored by 450 people at a dinner marking his retirement as director of housing management for the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority.

1972: The Youngstown Education Association files suit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to block the Board of Education from enacting discipline policies in response to parent complaints, especially from parents of Hayes Middle School students.

Dr. Richard A. Boyd, superintendent of Warren city schools, says the Market School, an experiment in educating slow learners that drew nationwide attention but was the center of controversy in its hometown, will be closed at the end of the school year.

1962: J. Jasper “Fats” Aiello,48, who was found to be armed with a 45-caliber pistol when stopped by a Youngstown traffic patrolman, says his life has been threatened and, “I’m going to get them before they get me.”

The Mahoning County Planning Commission recommends that Milton Township trustees approve a zone change on a 65-acre parcel on East River Road that would allow construction of a proposed stock car race track, football field and grandstands.

1937: Anthony J. Sergi, 24, former Chaney High School football captain and star quarterback, is one of three people killed when a truck crashes into a crowd at Beckley, W. Va. Sergi and his father were visiting Mt. Hope, W. Va., where Sergi had attended school.

Demand for a new course in radio broadcasting at Ohio State University is so great that enrollment had to be limited to 30 pupils.

The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously overturns two New Deal measures, the railway labor act and the Frazier-Lemke farm mortgage bill, and reverses itself in a 5-4 vote upholding the right of a state to establish minimum wages.