YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, Jan. 23, the 23rd day of 2015. There are 342 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: Georgetown University is established in present-day Washington, D.C.

1845: Congress decides all national elections would take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

1915: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart is born in Jackson, Mich.

1937: Seventeen people go on trial in Moscow during Josef Stalin’s “Great Purge.” (All were convicted of conspiracy; all but four were executed.)

1944: Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (“The Scream”) dies near Oslo at age 80.

1950: The Israeli Knesset approves a resolution affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

1960: The U.S. Navy- operated bathyscaphe Trieste carries two men to the deepest known point in the Pacific Ocean, reaching a depth of more than 35,000 feet.

1964: The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, is ratified as South Dakota becomes the 38th state to endorse it.

1968: North Korea seizes the Navy intelligence ship USS Pueblo, charging its crew with being on a spying mission. (The crew was released 11 months later.)

1973: President Richard Nixon announces an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War, and it would be formally signed four days later in Paris.

1985: Debate in Britain’s House of Lords is carried on live television for the first time.

1995: The Supreme Court, in McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publishing Co., rules that companies accused of firing employees illegally cannot escape liability by later finding a lawful reason to justify the dismissal.

2005: Former “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson dies in Los Angeles at age 79.

Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as president of Ukraine.

The Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Atlanta Falcons 27-10 to win the NFC championship game; the New England Patriots win the AFC championship by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 41-27.

2010: Abby Sunderland, 16, leaves Marina del Rey, Calif., on her first attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. (The voyage ends a week and a-half later because the boat experienced power problems; Sunderland then made a second attempt, but that, too, fell short.)

2014: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel orders immediate actions to define the depth of trouble inside the nation’s nuclear force, which has been rocked by disclosures about security lapses, poor discipline, weak morale and other problems.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Responding to complaints from Liberty Township fire officials, William Constantino, Girard Water Department foreman, says there should have been enough water pressure to fight a fire that destroyed a wing of the Ramada Inn on Belmont Avenue.

Two experts enlisted by defense attorneys say Stephen A. Vrabel, accused of killing his girlfriend and their daughter and living with the refrigerated corpses for two weeks, is competent to stand trial, but disagree on his sanity and culpability.

Arthur Treacher’s Inc., the restaurant chain based in Austintown, will surrender majority control of the company in exchange for new capital.

1975: Police are seeking a man who brutally raped and seriously injured a 4-year-old South Side girl in Oak Hill Cemetery as her young playmates looked on.

Youngstown City Council resists a move by two of its members to use council’s influence to break up the Western Reserve Transit Authority’s agreement with the Youngstown school board to transport more than 9,000 schoolchildren on WRTA buses.

Three armed men hold up the Burghill Volunteer Fire Department bingo game, escaping with an undisclosed sum of money from the game itself and from the billfolds and purses of the 20 players.

1965: Jack Faulkner, former Boardman football star, is hired by the Minnesota Vikings as a defensive backfield coach.

The finest in theatrical trappings go on the auction block as the contents of a Youngstown landmark, the Palace Theater, are offered for sale. Among the items are several marble fireplaces, three pianos and many paintings.

Butler Institute Director Joseph Butler purchases nine works from the 17th Ohio Ceramic and Sculpture Show. One purchase was a metal sculpture by former Youngstowner William Bowie, now of New York.

1940: Twelve people, including an 82-year-old woman and an 18-month old baby, are driven by smoke and fire to the street in near-zero weather from their apartments above the Isaly Dairy store at 544 Market St.

Two skaters are injured at Crandall Park when they collide with other skaters. Julia Dingledy, 22, suffers a nose injury and Jean Hogan, 19, a leg injury. Both were treated at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Kent State University will offer four extension courses in the Youngstown Board of Education building on Wood Street.