Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Jan. 26, the 26th day of 2014. There are 339 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1784: In a letter to his daughter Sarah (also called “Sally”), Benjamin Franklin expresses unhappiness over the choice of the bald eagle as the symbol of America, and states his own preference: the turkey, calling it “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America.”

1788: The first European settlers in Australia, led by Capt. Arthur Phillip, land in present-day Sydney.

1837: Michigan becomes the 26th state.

1870: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1934: The 125th Street Apollo Theater opens in New York City’s Harlem district.

1939: Principal photography begins for David O. Selznick’s movie version of “Gone with the Wind.”

1942: The first American Expeditionary Force to go to Europe during World War II arrives in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1950: India officially proclaims itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad takes the oath of office as president.

1962: The United States launches Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon — but the probe ends up missing its target by more than 22,000 miles.

1979: Former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller dies in New York at age 70.

1988: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Phantom of the Opera” opens at Broadway’s Majestic Theater.

1993: Vaclav Havel is elected president of the newly formed Czech Republic.

1994: A scare occurs during a visit to Sydney, Australia, by Britain’s Prince Charles as college student David Kang lunges at the prince, firing two blank shots from a starter’s pistol. (Kang was later sentenced to 500 hours of community service.)

2004: The Bush administration retreats from its once-confident claims that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Commercial Intertech Corp’s board of directors is asking shareholders for authority to issue new shares of preferred stock for raising capital or for the purpose of repelling “unfair” takeover bids.

The state of Ohio wants to meet with officials of the Peter J. Schmitt Co., a grocery company that reportedly wants to locate a major distribution center in North Jackson.

Defense lawyers J. Gerald Ingram and Michael Morley are demanding that their client, Thomas Kemp, be tried within 90 days of his arrest for murder in the death of his son-in-law, Thomas Beno, or be set free.

1974: A fourth-grade teacher at the Parkway School in Alliance, Deborah Rutzky, 24, of Salem, is killed in a two-car collision on U.S. Route 62 in Goshen Township.

The Big Three U.S. auto makers ask the Treasury Department for permission for their Argentine subsidiaries to sell thousands of cars and trucks to Cuba.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio denies the Erie-Lackawanna Railway Co. permission to discontinue its 78-year-old run between Youngstown and Cleveland.

1964: Youngstown University maintains its undefeated season with a thrilling 66-64 overtime win over Buffalo University.

In response to a scathing Mahoning County grand jury report, Police Chief John Terlesky promises harassment of Youngstown gamblers “without letup.”

Cheaper hot metal and growth of the basic oxygen furnace are creating a vexing new economic problem for the U.S. steel industry: Enormous stockpiles of iron and steel scrap that were formerly worth millions of dollars.

1939: Ten people clad in night clothing are driven from their homes into the cold, losing virtually all their clothing and personal effects when fire caused by an overheated furnace destroys a six-family apartment house at 339-341 Lincoln Ave. Firemen had to build fires around frozen hydrants before they had water to fight the fire.

The Ohio Legislature will consider a bill to add quail to the game bird list.

City Councilman William A. Carney asks the civil service commission for a list of married women in the classified service whose husbands are employed, suggesting that Carney will seek to have them removed from the city payroll.