YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Feb. 28, the 59th day of 2016. There are 307 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1844: A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton explodes as the ship is sailing on the Potomac River, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1861: The Territory of Colorado is organized.

1916: American-born novelist Henry James, known for such works as “Daisy Miller,” ‘’The Portrait of a Lady” and “The Bostonians,” dies in London at age 72.

1940: The first televised college basketball games are broadcast by New York City station W2XBS as Pittsburgh defeats Fordham, 57-37, and New York University beats Georgetown, 50-27, at Madison Square Garden.

1942: The heavy cruiser USS Houston and the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth are attacked by Japanese forces in the World War II Battle of Sunda Strait; both are sunk shortly after midnight.

1953: Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announce they have discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.

1960: A day after defeating the Soviets at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif., the United States wins its first Olympic hockey gold medal by defeating Czechoslovakia, 9-4.

1972: President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue the Shanghai Communique, which calls for normalizing relations between their countries, at the conclusion of Nixon’s historic visit to China.

1975: Forty-two people are killed in London’s Underground when a train smashes into the end of a tunnel.

1986: Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is shot to death in central Stockholm. (The killing remains unsolved.)

1993: A gunbattle erupts at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents try to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on weapons charges; four agents and six Davidians are killed as a 51-day standoff began.

1996: Britain’s Princess Diana agrees to divorce Prince Charles. (Their 15-year marriage officially ended in Aug. 1996; Diana died in a car crash in Paris a year after that.)

2013:Benedict XVI becomes the first pope in 600 years to resign, ending an eight-year pontificate. (Benedict was succeeded the following month by Pope Francis.)

2006: A 20-year-old legal fight over protests outside abortion clinics ends with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling 8-0 that federal extortion and racketeering laws could not be used against demonstrators.

The first Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina draws a small turnout.

2011: The United States and European allies intensify efforts to isolate Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, redoubling demands for him to step down, questioning his mental state and warning that those who stayed loyal to him risk losing their wealth.

Actress Jane Russell dies in Santa Maria, Calif., at age 89.

2015: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announces his country would shrink the size of the U.S. Embassy staff, limit the activities of U.S. diplomats and require American tourists to apply for visas, saying that “gringo” meddling had forced him to adopt the restrictive measures.

Death claims NFL player and coach Tom Bettis at age 81; baseball player Alex Johnson at age 72; and basketball player Anthony Mason at age 48.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Mahoning Valley residents celebrate the victory and cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War.

Principals of an Austintown company have agreed to repay three clients who said they were promised 300 percent returns on the $17,000 they invested in a gold-mining process.

A federal appeals court strikes down a state law that gives the Ohio Elections Commission power to fine candidates who make false statements in election campaigns. Trumbull County Commissioner Anthony Latell had accused Commissioner Walter Pestrak of making false statements about him during the 1984 Democratic primary.

1976: Dianne McMasters, 14, and her brother, Robert, 13, of Lake Milton win a contest to name an overdue-reminder mascot for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. Their winning entry: “The Lone Remindeer.”

The world champion Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Canfield High School faculty, 69-50, in a benefit basketball game at the high school. Leading the Steelers were Steve Furness with 19 points, Sam Davis with 18 and Reggie Harrison and John Stallworth, each with 12. Brian Wolf had 12 for Canfield and James Dunn had 8.

Dale Waldron, 21, of Warren dies in St. Joseph Hospital of injuries suffered when struck by a train while working at Copperweld Steel Co.

1966: Standard Slag Co. of Youngstown purchases 29 acres of land near Mercer, Pa.

Four Youngstown area 11-year-olds, Kirk Graham, Patricia Masters, Parke Bloyer and Mary Nathan, are selected to spend the summer in Denmark as part of the Children’s International Village program.

An $800,000 renovation of Woodside Receiving Hospital in Youngstown is included in the state’s $116 million capital improvement budget.

1941: Warren Metropolitan Housing Authority recommends Charles Shutrump & Sons of Youngstown as the contractor to build 93 duplexes on a tract along Thomas Road. Shutrump submitted a bid of $591,000 for 93 concrete-block, two-story buildings.

Edwin F. Frye, 18, of Pearl Street, Youngstown, has been assigned to the battleship Nevada after completing training at Great Lakes.

Edwin Lewis of Leavittsburg is one of four Kent State University industrial arts students to receive a scholarship to Henry Ford Trade School in Detroit.

In the six years that bookie Ben Hilson worked for the “Big House” lottery, he was arrested three times. In the two months he has been working for two smaller rivals, he’s been arrested three times.