Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Dec. 28, the 362nd day of 2013. There are three days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1612: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observes the planet Neptune, but mistakes it for a star. (Neptune isn’t officially discovered until 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle.)

1832: John C. Calhoun becomes the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down because of differences with President Andrew Jackson.

1846: Iowa becomes the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1856: The 28th president of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, is born in Staunton, Va.

1879: A section of the Tay Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, collapses as a train is traveling over it, sending an estimated 75 people to their deaths in the river below.

1912: San Francisco’s Municipal Railway begins operations with Mayor James Rolph Jr. at the controls of Streetcar No. 1 as 50,000 spectators look on.

1917: The New York Evening Mail publishes “A Neglected Anniversary,” a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken supposedly recounting the history of bathtubs in America.

1937: Composer Maurice Ravel dies in Paris at age 62.

1945: Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance.

1961: The Tennessee Williams play “Night of the Iguana” opens on Broadway.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Marty Schottenheimer quits the Cleveland Browns, a team he coached to four straight playoff appearances, when it becomes apparent that differences in philosophy between him and team owner Art Modell couldn’t be resolved.

Mahoning County commissioners authorize creation of an 11-member authority to study the possible construction of a convocation center, but stop short of imposing a 4 percent hotel and motel tax.

The Carbon Limestone landfill in Poland Township will remain open after the Mahoning County Board of Health and Browning-Ferris Industries reach agreement that allows BFI to accept up to 14,242 cubic yards of solid waste daily.

1973: Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice C. William O’Neill administers the oath of office for Mayor Jack C. Hunter’s third consecutive two-year term.

Six masked men break into a North Side apartment at 755 Mauro Circle in Niles and shoot to death John R. Dudley Sr., 41, as he sought refuge in a bedroom closet.

Youngstown Hospital Association announces room rate increases averaging $3.82 a day. A semi-private room at North and South units will cost $63.40 and a private room will be $71.90.

1963: The 5-month-old son of a Youngstown couple dies when he becomes entangled in a plastic dry cleaning bag while playing on a bed at his Falls Avenue home. Dead is Daniel Dominic Breckner.

The five most frequently mentioned candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964 are Barry Goldwater, Henry Cabot Lodge, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon and Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton.

Russell Zinn, former pastor of Quaker Hill Friends Church and a missionary to Taiwan, speaks at the Bethel Friends Church on Spitler Road in Poland.

1938: Fewer than 500 people make appointments when the Ohio unemployment compensation offices open, leaving some 12,500 in Mahoning County still eligible to register.

Fire among grocery stocks in the basement of a store at 11 N. Fruit St. drives Ernest Regenstreich, his wife and baby from their home above the store. Damage is estimated at $1,200 to the groceries and $200 to the structure.

Allan S. George, inspector in charge of the Youngstown office of the State Department of Liquor Control, denies any connection between his office and an alleged shakedown in which liquor permit holders were allegedly told that their permits would be revoked if they did not install gambling games.