YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, March 10, the 69th day of 2015. There are 296 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1785: Thomas Jefferson is appointed America’s minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.

1864: President Abraham Lincoln assigns Ulysses S. Grant, who just received his commission as lieutenant-general, to the command of the Armies of the United States.

1876: Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, Thomas Watson, hears Bell say over his experimental telephone: “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.”

1880: The Salvation Army arrives in the United States from England.

1914: “The Rokeby Venus,” a 17th century painting by Diego Velazquez on display at the National Gallery in London, is slashed multiple times by Mary Richardson, who was protesting the arrest of fellow suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. (The painting was repaired.)

1933: A magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered off Long Beach, Calif., results in 120 deaths.

1949: Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally,” is convicted in Washington D.C., of treason. (She served 12 years in prison.)

1959: The Tennessee Williams play “Sweet Bird of Youth,” starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, opens at Broadway’s Martin Beck Theatre.

1965: Neil Simon’s play “The Odd Couple,” starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney, opens on Broadway.

1969: James Earl Ray pleads guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (Ray later repudiated that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.)

1973: The Pink Floyd album “The Dark Side of the Moon” is first released in the U.S. by Capitol Records (the British release came nearly two weeks later).

1980: “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower is shot to death at his home in Purchase, N.Y. (Tarnower’s former lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of his murder; she served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.)

1985: Konstantin U. Chernenko, who was the Soviet Union’s leader for 13 months, dies at age 73; he is succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev.

2005: A suicide bomber blows himself up at a funeral in Mosul, Iraq, killing at least 47 people.

Michael Jackson, clad in pajamas and walking gingerly, arrives one hour late to his child molestation trial after the judge threatened to have him arrested him for tardiness; a back injury was blamed. (Jackson was acquitted.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Three-week-old Justin Sopkovich of Youngstown receives a new heart in a 31/2-hour operation at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. The heart came from an abused 3-month old New York baby who had been declared brain dead.

The Trumbull County Office of Elderly Affairs will soon start a new transportation service for senior citizens in the northern Trumbull County area.

Ingersoll Publications Co. announces it has completed the sale of the Warren Tribune Chronicle and four other newspapers to Thomson Newspapers Corp., which owns more than 140 papers in the U.S.

1975: The Youngstown YWCA opens its annual campaign with a goal of $10,000 and 7,000 members.

A bandit robs an independent cab driver of $18 and his cab when driver John Conroy stops in the 200 block of Dupont Street to pick up a fare.

Paul V. Reardon is appointed manager of the Minneapolis, Minn., district sales office of Commercial Shearing Inc.

1965: John McElroy, a senior at Youngstown North High School, placed first on the all-star Northeast District Class AA basketball team.

Atty. F. Rollin Hahn, East Midlothian Boulevard, a prominent area lawyer for many years, dies at his home at age 94.

Youngstown City Council approves installation of white-way lighting in the Downtown and Uptown districts at a cost of $38,000.

1940: U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan tells the Warren Chamber of Commerce and city officials that he will back the city’s fight for a reservoir to provide a new source of water for residential and industrial use.

Dr. F.M. Semans, president of the Youngstown Biological Society, announces an effort to start a Mahoning Valley zoo to create an interest in the conservation of wildlife.

A rare Blaeu world atlas is acquired by newspaperman H.B. Sanderson in Warren. The 300-year-old atlas is similar to one at the Hague that is valued at $6,000.