YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2015. 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.

1915: Actor-comedian Zero Mostel is born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

1940: The first televised college basketball games are broadcast by New York City station W2XBS as Pittsburgh defeats Fordham, 57-37, and New York University beats Georgetown, 50-27, at Madison Square Garden.

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 (deoxyribonucleic acid).

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The Boardman Township Zoning Commission turns down a request for rezoning that would permit construction of single-family homes on 25 acres on Lockwood Boulevard near the Lockwood Village development.

Mother Blanche Klempay, former general superior of the Ursuline Order, dies of a heart ailment at the Motherhouse Health Care Center. She was 89.

Advertisement: First Federal Savings Bank 9-month certificates of deposit, $2,500 minimum, 8 percent, plus a guarantee to renew at 8 percent or more for a second nine months.

1975: The Youngstown Planning Commission takes under advisement a zone change request to permit construction of a $7 million apartment complex for the elderly and handicapped at McCartney Road and Route 422.

Dr. Arthur V. Whittaker is appointed director of the newly named Dr. James L. Calvin Cardiovascular Laboratory at the North unit of the Youngstown Hospital Association.

1965: Mrs. Von M. Kehl, Lower Salem, Washington County, wins the Ohio Committee for Safety Slogan Contest with her entry, “Alert Today — Alive tomorrow.”

A three-year, $500,000 feasibility study of a Lake Erie-Ohio River Canal that was made possible by U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan is submitted by the Army Corps of Engineers to Congress.

Due to a continued demand for steel, mostly from auto manufacturers and the construction industry, local steel plants are operating at near- capacity levels.

Robert S. Boles, Old Orchard Road, Howland, is named vice president and general manager of Standard Steel Products. He is a native of Warren and a graduate of Harding High School.

1940: Gov. John Bricker says the election of two Republicans in special elections portend a rout of Roosevelt’s New Deal in the November elections. Frances Payne Bolton is elected to the unexpired term of her late husband, making her the state’s first congresswoman, and contractor J. Harry McGregor is elected to a district represented by a Democrat the last nine years.

Mahoning County commissioners decide that Lua Anderson of West Austintown is entitled to the $500 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of Norman Smith in the Baumeister triple slaying in early 1938. Smith is serving three life terms in the Ohio Penitentiary.

Atty. Milan Budak, one of 30 Croat separatists arrested by secret police in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, and charged with attempting to break up the country, is the uncle of Frank Budak, operator of the Poland Golf Club.