YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2016. There are 315 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1792: President George Washington signs an act creating the U.S. Post Office.

1862: William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, dies at the White House, apparently of typhoid fever.

1944: During World War II, U.S. strategic bombers begin raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that become known as “Big Week.”

1962: Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth as he flies aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft.

2003: A fire sparked by pyrotechnics breaks out during a concert by the group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others. Band member Ty Longley, a Sharon, Pa., native, is among those killed.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: A pharmacist at Bittner’s Pharmacy on Elm Street in Youngstown is indicted by the Mahoning County grand jury on 40 counts of trafficking in drugs. He is accused of distributing Darvocet, Valium, Vicodin and Ionamin.

Debbie Kline of Leavittsburg, regional director of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, tells Ohio legislators in Columbus that they should take quick action on behalf of 700,000 children whose parents are failing to pay child support by promoting tougher enforcement.

Pitcher Tom Candiotti will receive the richest one-year settlement in Cleveland Indians history, avoiding arbitration by settling for a $2.5 million contract for 1991.

1976: First-place regional medals for participation in the National Cub Scout Physical Fitness Program are awarded to three members of Cub Scout Pack 22 at St. Christine Church, Tim Dobos, 8; David Taylor, 9, and Tex Martin, 10.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and a German steel company have developed a new continuous-melt steelmaking process that could sharply cut the use of industrial energy and bring major benefits to the county.

Dr. Nathan D. Belinky, Mahoning County coroner, rules the beating death of Angelo Hughes, 45, a homicide. Hughes was slain in a fight after confronting a relative over the purported beating of Hughes’ 10-year-old nephew. Belinky recommended that no charges be filed against Hughes’ assailant because Hughes was alleged to have fired shot at the man.

1966: Shirley Mauer is named “Miss Ideal Secretary” by the advanced typing classes of South High School.

Modern methods are being used to extract oil from beneath Mecca Township in Trumbull County. The oil was discovered a century ago, but was too thick to be extracted with the technology of the day.

Thirty houses in the Oak Park Allotment, one of Youngstown’s first housing projects, built in 1912, are being razed to make way for the Madison Avenue Expressway.

1941: Mahoning County commissioners are considering a request by Sheriff Ralph Elser for funds to station a deputy at Lake Milton to protect the dam against possible sabotage during the present “period of national defense.”

Westminster College robs Youngstown College of an unblemished home record by edging out the Penguins, 49-48, in the final game of the season.

Harvey W. Bicknell, an editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, discusses English gardens at a meeting of the Youngstown Federation of Garden Clubs.