Years Ago

Today is Saturday, May 12, the 133rd day of 2012. There are 233 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1012: Pope Sergius IV dies, ending a nearly three-year papacy; he is succeeded by Pope Benedict VIII.

1780: During the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of Charleston, S.C., surrenders to British forces.

1812: English poet Edward Lear, known for nonsensical verse like “The Owl and the Pussycat,” is born.

1902: Anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania go on strike. (The strike effectively ends in October 1902 with the appointment of an Anthracite Coal Strike Commission by President Theodore Roosevelt.)

1922: A 20-ton meteor crashes near Blackstone, Va.

1932: The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, is found in a wooded area near Hopewell, N.J.

1937: Britain’s King George VI is crowned at Westminster Abbey; his wife, Elizabeth, is crowned as queen consort.

1949: The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

1958: The United States and Canada sign an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD for short).

1970: The Senate votes unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun as a Supreme Court justice.

1982: In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpower a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope’s longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)

1992: Actor Robert Reed of TV’s “The Brady Bunch” dies in Pasadena, Calif., at age 59.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Poland Township Trustee Peter Sturbi wants a meeting with Browning-Ferris Industries officials to determine the content of garbage being brought from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the U.S. Route 224 landfill.

Mill Creek Park commissioners revamp the park police department, naming Capt. Robert Yeckel to the new rank of chief and Lt. Nathaniel Pinkard to the new rank of assistant chief.

Keith Mathias fires a four-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts as Austintown Fitch pounds out a 7-0 victory over Marlington in the first round of the AAA Sectional Baseball tournament.

1972: Dr. John R. Dahmen, assistant Youngstown health commissioner, is suspended for three days by Dr. Walter M. Greissinger, deputy health commissioner, for insubordination after the two clashed over legislation Dahman backed in city council to transfer some health department funds.

Two gunmen hold four customers and five employees at bay while robbing the City Loan and Savings Co. at 3508 Market St.

The Women’s City Club has bought the property at 1625 Fifth Ave. owned by Dr. James Patrick and will move in June 1, leaving the club’s pink building at 505 Wick Ave., which has been bought by Youngstown State University.

D.T. Peters, one of five men who organized the Youngstown Area Board of Realtors in 1910, is honored as Youngstown’s “Realtor of the Year.”

1962: Three bandits hold the John Martin family hostage in an attempt to rob the A&P store in Salem. Although Martin gave the men the combination to the store safes, they couldn’t get them open and fled with $80 in cash.

An exact duplicate of Astronaut John Glenn’s Freedom 7 space capsule is displayed on Youngstown’s Central Square as part of the first nationwide Savings Bond Drive since World War II.

The Boardman Board of Zoning Appeals turns down a permit that would have allowed construction of two 7-story apartment buildings on Route 224 across from Boardman Park.

1937: Three Youngstown men face charges in Warren and Jefferson after a 60-mile chase that ended when their car ran out of gas near Kinsman. The chase started after police attempted to stop the driver for suspected drunken driving.

The death of Joseph S. Webber, 95, of East Liverpool, leaves the General Lyon Post No. 44, Grand Army of the Republic, with just one survivor, Hugh G. Ballantine, 90. Eleven other GAR posts in Ohio are down to one member each.

A bronze tablet and pulpit are dedicated at First Christian Church to honor its former pastor, Dr. Levi Batman. A second tablet will honor Mrs. Bateman,

Mahoning County commissioners donate $10,000 and the Youngstown Foundation provides $7,000 for the establishment of a venereal disease clinic in the city.