YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2015. There are 362 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1521: Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X.

1777: Gen. George Washington’s army routs the British in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.

1870: Groundbreaking takes place for the Brooklyn Bridge.

1911: The first postal savings banks are opened by the U.S. Post Office. (The banks were abolished in 1966.)

1938: The March of Dimes campaign to fight polio is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who himself has been afflicted with the crippling disease.

1949: In a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court says that states have the right to ban closed shops.

1959: Alaska becomes the 49th state as President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a proclamation.

1961: President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has terminated diplomatic relations with Cuba, after the Havana government said it was limiting the number of U.S. Embassy and Consulate personnel allowed in the country.

1967: Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies in a Dallas hospital.

1975: The original version of the TV game show “Jeopardy!,” hosted by Art Fleming, ends its nearly 11-year run on NBC.

1980: Conservationist Joy Adamson, author of “Born Free,” is killed in northern Kenya by a former employee.

1990: Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrenders to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission.

2000: The last new daily “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles Schulz runs in 2,600 newspapers.

2005: President George W. Bush taps his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Bill Clinton to help raise tsunami relief funds.

The third-ranked Auburn Tigers limp to a 16-13 victory over No. 9 Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

Craig Ferguson takes over as host of “The Late Late Show” on CBS-TV. (Ferguson ended his 10-year run on the show late last month.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Bobbie Brown, coordinator of Opening Night, Warren’s alcohol-free New Year’s Eve celebration, says the future of the event is in doubt. “People who attended seemed to enjoy it,” she said, but only 2,500 tickets were sold.

Liberty Township trustees demoted township police Chief Orlando DiLullo to captain. Lt. Anthony Pilolli will become chief.

William D. White, president of Major League Baseball’s National League and a Warren native, will be the guest speaker at the third annual breakfast of the Trumbull County Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

1975: Canfield police corner and arrest a Canfield youth in Saw Mill Run Road after an early-morning incident at his girlfriend’s home in which he allegedly fired three shots. The boy and girl, both 16, were planning to elope.

Trumbull County commissioners take under advisement the proposed incorporation of 3 square miles of Lordstown Township into a village.

Atty. Julius A. Zlotnick is appointed Mahoning County judge, succeeding Charles J. Bannon, who was elected to the common pleas court.

1965: Mrs. Paul J. Thomas and her daughters, Gwen and Janet, entertain 100 guests at the Warner Road home with a holiday tea.

A morning coffee hour precedes the meeting of the American Association of University Women at the Butler Institute of American Art. Miss Arveta Weber and Mrs. William A. Milliron presided.

1940: The Youngstown Post Office broke all records for receipts in 1939, collecting $764,200 as against the previous high of $751,684 in 1937.

Atty. T. Lamar Jackson is elected president of the board of education, and Dr. H.E. Patrick is elected vice president.

Fire of undetermined origin levels the six-room cottage owned by Probate Judge Clifford M. Woodside at Welton’s Cove, Lake Milton.