Years Ago

Today is Friday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2014. There are 306 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1844: A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton explodes as the ship is sailing on the Potomac River, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1861: The Territory of Colorado is organized.

1911: President William Howard Taft nominates William H. Lewis to be the first black assistant attorney general of the United States.

1942: The heavy cruiser USS Houston and the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth are attacked by Japanese forces during the World War II Battle of Sunda Strait; both are sunk shortly after midnight.

1953: Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announce they have discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.

1972: President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue the Shanghai Communique, which calls for normalizing relations between their countries, at the conclusion of Nixon’s historic visit to China.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Youngstown City Council will hold hearings on a law that would ban certain semiautomatic firearms, and no vote is likely before April.

MediGen Inc. of Boston chooses Struthers as the site of its next plant that will incinerate medical waste.

About 40 residents walk out of a noisy meeting to discuss plans by Austintown Township trustees to hire a township administrator after trustee Chairman Kenneth Zinz declared “out of order” a resident who repeatedly interrupted him.

1974: Youngstown City Council passes an ordinance banning adult bookstores and theaters within 500 feet of schools, churches, private residences, public parks, playgrounds or libraries.

Gov. John J. Gilligan signs Ohio’s new law reducing the speed limit on Ohio expressways and highways from 70 and 60 mph to 55 mph.

Sgt. Mizell Stewart Sr., well-known Youngstown policeman and community leader, receives a Governor’s Award for Community Action from Gov. Gilligan.

1964: After 33 years at the helm of Sharon Steel Corp. and 64 years in the steel industry, Henry Roemer, nearing 80, is retiring to devote time to his farm on Warner Road and other business interests.

The Ohio Civil Defense office in Columbus recalls 103 shotguns and 50 revolvers assigned to the Youngstown-Mahoning County Civil Defense office. Bud J. Fares, newly appointed Youngstown CD director, said the federal government “has become alarmed about the free use of government guns.”

1939: Pittsburgh and Youngstown’s freight rate disadvantages with the Detroit auto center and Chicago steel center would be virtually eliminated with construction of a Lake Erie-to-Ohio River canal, according to an Army engineer’s report.

Declaring the United States is the most lawless nation on Earth, Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Henry P. Beckenbach tells the German-American Political Club that increasing crime rates must be addressed through the youth, not the penitentiary.