Years Ago

Today is Saturday, March 30, the 89th day of 2013. There are 276 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1135: The Jewish philosopher Maimonides is born in Cordoba in present-day Spain.

1822: Florida becomes a United States territory.

1867: U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reaches agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million.

1870: The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits denying citizens the right to vote and hold office on the basis of race, is declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish.

1909: The Queensboro Bridge, linking the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, opens.

1923: The Cunard liner RMS Laconia becomes the first passenger ship to circle the globe as it arrives in New York.

1945: The Soviet Union invades Austria during World War II.

1959: A narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Bartkus v. Illinois, rules that a conviction in state court following an acquittal in federal court for the same crime does not constitute double jeopardy.

1963: Singer Lesley Gore, age 16, records her hit “It’s My Party” for Mercury Records in New York.

1972: North Vietnamese forces launch their three-pronged Easter Offensive against South Vietnam; the fighting lasts until the following October.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, diocesan schools superintendent, says schools will be revamped in Ashtabula and Mahoning counties.

A 17-year-old North Jackson boy is held in the murder of James B. Williams II, 41, Diane Cramer, 28, and Jennifer Williams, 5, in the family’s Shaffer Road home.

The Boardman Board of Education is refusing to provide transportation for Montessori students, saying the cost would reach $3,000 a year if all requests were granted.

Dr. William Binning, a delegate for George W. Bush to the Republican National Convention in August, believes Ohio will be a crucial state in the general election, just as it was in 1976.

1973: As stories of the torture of U.S. POWs held in Hanoi become public, Cmdr. Robert H. Shumaker of New Castle, Pa., tells The Vindicator’s Robert Jackson of being paraded through villages on a 300-mile trip to Hanoi after being captured and of having stones thrown at him while held in a cage.

Officials of the United Steelworkers Union and the nation’s Big Ten steelmakers say their new “no-strike” agreement is historic.

Youngstown State University will host the five teams in the Lake Erie Intercollegiate Rifle Conference Tournament at the Beeghly Center rifle range.

An Austintown man tells city police that he was robbed of $250 by two gunmen while in an elevator in the Mahoning County Office Building en route to the Humane Society offices on the second floor.

1963: Industry in Youngstown is on its last legs unless a canal is built to connect the Ohio River and Lake Erie, U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, D-Youngstown, tells a district conference of the United Steelworkers of America.

Mahoning County Sheriff Ray T. Davis and the Youngstown Area Junior Chamber of Commerce announce plans for a Mahoning County youth center to be located in either Austintown or Boardman.

Traffic investigators from the Ohio State Patrol say it was a miracle that no one was killed in a high-speed crash of a car containing three Poland youths in Route 7, two miles south of Route 224. Hospitalized are the driver, David Crump, and passengers Robert and William McBride.

1938: The Junior Chamber of Commerce pledges $50 per year for the next 10 years to the library fund of Youngstown College.

Residential consumers of electric in Youngstown pay among the lowest rates and have the lowest monthly bills among cities in Ohio; Warren residents pay among the highest. Youngstown is served by Ohio Edison Co., Warren by the Ohio Public Service Co.

The new officers of the Rayen School senior class are all “A” students. John Lindsay is president; Congetine Joy, vice president; Helen Petrackos, secretary, and Arthur Young, treasurer.

With two days left, thousands of Youngstown motorists have not yet gotten 1938 license plates; state officials say there will be no extension.