YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2015. There are 302 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)

1791: Vermont becomes the 14th state.

1861: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for a second term of office; with the end of the Civil War in sight, Lincoln declares, “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”

1925: President Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration is broadcast live on 21 radio stations coast-to-coast.

1930: Coolidge Dam in Arizona is dedicated by its namesake, former President Calvin Coolidge.

1940: Kings Canyon National Park in California is established.

1952: Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis are married in San Fernando Valley, Calif.

1964: Teamsters President James Hoffa and three co-defendants are found guilty by a federal court in Chattanooga, Tenn., of jury tampering.

1974: The first issue of People magazine, then called People Weekly, is published by Time-Life Inc.; on the cover is actress Mia Farrow, then co-starring in “The Great Gatsby.”

1989: Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announce plans for a huge media merger.

1998: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sexual harassment at work can be illegal even when the offender and victim are of the same gender.

2005: American troops in Iraq fire on a car carrying just-freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, killing Nicola Calipari, the intelligence officer who’d helped negotiate her release and injuring the reporter.

Martha Stewart, imprisoned for five months for her role in a stock scandal, leaves federal prison to start five months of home confinement.

2014: President Barack Obama submits a $3.9 trillion budget for fiscal 2015.

VINDICATOR FILEs

1990: Four priests with long service in the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown announce plans to retire: Msgr. John Lettau, pastor of St. Edward Church; the Rev. Thomas Kelly, pastor of St. Christine; the Rev. John Lyons, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Austintown, and the Rev. Thomas McNally, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Maximo.

Stewart L. Udall, former Interior secretary and Arizona congressman, tells a crowd at Youngstown State University that gas-guzzling, pollution-emitting automobiles could spell economic and environmental doom for the country. He proposes a $1 per gallon gas tax to encourage Americans to drive less and automakers to increase fuel economy.

Dr. David A. Allen Jr., associate director of admissions for Penn State University, is the new dean of Kent State University’s Trumbull Campus.

1975: Six Youngstown firemen are injured, one seriously when vapors from a flammable liquid explode while fighting an arson fire at the Sting Tavern, 1734 Belmont Ave. Fireman William Walsh, 26, is in guarded condition at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Trumbull County Treasurer Carl N. Lupi agrees to certify payment for 19 employees in his office who he attempted to fire three weeks earlier. The payment covers days Lupi locked the workers out of his office. Lupi still has 11 replacement workers he hired on the payroll.

Co-captains of the Youngstown State University Penguins basketball team, Phil Gaston and Dave Burkholder, are honored before the YSU’s final home game against Georgia State, which YSU won, 82-57.

1965: State Rep. Fred Cassel, R-Wyandot, dean of the Ohio House, says a bill requiring school districts to provide bus transportation for parochial school students cannot be passed, but a bill permitting the service might get a majority vote.

The Boardman Spartans roar to their 21st consecutive victory, trouncing the Howland Tigers, 82-61, in the NEO Class AA Sectional Basketball Tournament at the Struthers Field House.

1940: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.’s net sales in 1939 jumped $32 million to $117 million, a gain of 38 percent. Profits were $5 million, compared to losses of $658,933 a year earlier.

Youngstown Councilman Edwin Haseltine says relieving the city of upkeep on the municipal hospital building and Lake Milton would save the city $65,000 a year.

Three people are killed in separate traffic accidents in the Youngstown area over the weekend: Harry Broll, 21, of Youngstown; Olga Mae Puz, 23, of Struthers and Russell Smutz, 24, a truck driver from LaSalle, Mich.