Years Ago

Today is Monday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2014. There are 331 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1014: Sweyn I, the king of Denmark, Norway and England, dies in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, just over a month after being declared ruler of the English.

1783: Spain formally recognizes American independence.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens hold a shipboard peace conference off the Virginia coast; the talks deadlock over the issue of Southern autonomy.

1913: The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, is ratified.

1924: The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, dies in Washington, D.C., at age 67.

1930: The chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigns for health reasons.

1943: During World War II, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sinks after being hit by a German torpedo; of the more than 900 men aboard, only some 230 survived.

1959: Rock ’n’ roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson die in a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1966: The Soviet probe Luna 9 becomes the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.

1972: The XI Olympic Winter Games open in Sapporo, Japan.

1989: Alfredo Stroessner, president of Paraguay for more than three decades, is overthrown in a military coup.

1994: The space shuttle Discovery lifts off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

1998: Texas executes Karla Faye Tucker, 38, for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she is the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Warren native Bill White will be named the new president of baseball’s National League, becoming the first black to serve as president of a major sports league.

Reacting to criticism, the Youngstown Board of Education agrees that a fourth year of English should remain a requirement for graduation from city high schools.

A majority of residents interviewed by a reporter in Smith Township, Mahoning County, say they don’t see a need for cable television and wouldn’t subscribe if township trustees reach an agreement with Star Cable of Pittsburgh, which would make basic service available for $13.95 a month.

1974: Joe Chovan, a senior at LaBrae High School, paints a 30-foot mural on the wall of LaBrae’s gymnasium depicting athletes in all sports at the school.

Al Bogan, Youngstown South High coach, accepts a job as coach of offensive backs at Indiana State at Terre Haute.

The guest speaker at the dedication of the new Highway Tabernacle Church, 1900 Canfield Road: Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart.

1964: Two U.S. Navy men, one a Youngstowner, are killed near Cadiz, Spain, trying to save their 6-year-old sons from death under the wheels of a freight train. Specialist First Class Thomas E. Barton died; his son, Dennis was critically injured. Lt. John F. Welsh Jr., 29 of Steubenville, and his son, Patrick, died.

State Sen. Charles J. Carney plans to file his petition as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for congressman-at-large.

Fire breaks out in the storeroom of the E-Z Market at 6949 Market Street Ext., Boardman. Fire Chief Wayne Ewing estimates damage at $26,000.

1939: Youngstown police are searching for a 25-year-old suspect who severely beat Mrs. Floyd Fonner, 30, of 179 Cleveland St. after gaining access to her home under the pretense of seeing an apartment over which she had charge.

Mayor Lionel Evans orders city license clerks to issue no more marble board licenses until the Youngstown Law Department has studied a recent state supreme court decision that apparently outlaws all types of pinball machines.

James C. Carpenter of Poland, 82-year-old machinist and repairman in Poland, recalls his years spent in Dodge City, Kansas, when it was the wildest, woolliest city in the new West. He returned to the family business in Poland in 1897.