YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2015. There are 346 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1807: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is born in Westmoreland County, Va.

1853: Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Il Trovatore” premieres in Rome.

1861: Georgia becomes the fifth state to secede from the Union.

1915:Germany carries out its first air raid on Britain during World War I as a pair of Zeppelins drops bombs onto Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in England.

1942: Dring World War II, Japan invades Burma (Myanmar).

1944: The federal government relinquishes control of the nation’s railroads to their owners following settlement of a wage dispute.

1955: A presidential news conference is filmed for television and newsreels for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1966: Indira Gandhi is elected prime minister of India.

1970: President Richard M. Nixon nominates G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court; however, the nomination is defeated because of controversy over Carswell’s past racial views.

1977: In one of his last acts of office, President Gerald R. Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American convicted of treason for making wartime broadcasts for Japan.

1981: The United States and Iran sign an accord paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.

1992: German government and Jewish officials dedicate a Holocaust memorial at the villa on the outskirts of Berlin where the notorious Wannsee Conference took place.

2005: Previewing his second inauguration, President George W. Bush pledges to seek unity in a nation divided by political differences, saying, “I am eager and ready for the work ahead.”

The American Cancer Society reports cancer has passed heart disease as the top killer of Americans age 85 and younger.

2010: In a major upset, Republican Scott Brown captures the U.S. Senate seat held by liberal champion Edward Kennedy for nearly half a century as he defeats Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election.

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1990: Seventeen kilograms of cocaine valued at $2 million, about $350,000 in cash and an array of powerful weapons are seized, and 10 people are arrested in Youngstown area raids by the FBI and local police.

Many of 100 or so United Auto Workers members who watch a screening of Michael Moore’s documentary “Roger and Me” at Cinema South in Boardman say they saw plenty of parallels between Flint, Mich., and the Mahoning Valley. Flint was devastated after GM closed 11 plants and laid off 30,000 employees in the 1980s.

The Lawrence County Prison Board appoints Stephan D. Kaftan warden of the Lawrence County jail.

1975: The Youngstown district and its 150,000 district industrial and transportation workers may get a major bonus from President Ford’s “recovery program,” which is designed to release sluggish capital spending by increasing the investment tax credit from 7 percent to 12 percent.

The Youngstown district’s Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge dealers say Chrysler Corp.’s rebates of $200 to $400 per vehicle are drawing new customers into showrooms.

Harlan Carter, vice president of Girard Federal Savings & Loan Association, will be installed as president of the Girard Area Chamber of Commerce.

1965: Mearl I. Butler, completing more than 22 years as clerk-treasurer of the Youngstown Board of Education, announces his retirement. His assistant, Blaine Brandyberry, will succeed him.

Eighteen-year-old Thomas T. Crawford, a Marine from Clifton Drive, Youngstown, is killed in Hawaii when the Jeep in which he was riding struck a tree.

Advertisement: The Goodyear Service Store on Front Street has a red-tag sale on a front alignment, $5.49 plus parts.

1940: Youngstown firemen work 14 hours in sub-zero temperatures to extinguish a fire that destroys the Road of Remembrance Post 472 of the American Legion in a two-story brick building at 651 Market St.

Donald Stone, 24, of Canton waives extradition and agrees to be returned to Youngstown from Pittsburgh to face bigamy charges. Lucille Tyber Stone of Cleveland filed an affidavit in Youngstown accusing Stone of marrying Ann Hutchison, 18, in Youngstown on Nov. 25, 1939, while he was married to her.

The worst cold wave in four years grips the Youngstown area, with a low temperature of 10 degrees below zero forcing suspension of outdoor jobs employing 6,000 WPA workers.