YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2016. There are 364 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1788: Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1893: The U.S. Postal Service issues its first commemorative stamp to honor the World’s Columbian Expedition and the quadricentennial of Christopher Columbus’ voyage.

1921: Religious services are broadcast on radio for the first time as KDKA in Pittsburgh airs the regular Sunday service of the city’s Calvary Episcopal Church.

1935: Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty and executed.)

1942: The Philippine capital of Manila is captured by Japanese forces during World War II.

1955: The president of Panama, Jose Antonio Remon Cantera, is assassinated.

1960: Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts launches his successful bid for the presidency.

1971: Sixty-six people are killed in a pileup of spectators leaving a soccer match at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland.

1974: President Richard Nixon signs legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph as a way of conserving gasoline in the face of an OPEC oil embargo.(The 55 mph limit was effectively phased out in 1987; federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.)

“Singing cowboy” star Tex Ritter dies in Nashville at age 68.

1981: Police in Sheffield, England, arrest Peter Sutcliffe, who confessed to being the “Yorkshire Ripper,” the serial killer of 13 women.

1986: Former baseball owner Bill Veeck, remembered for his well-publicized stunts and promotional gimmicks, including an exploding scoreboard and a dwarf pinch-hitter, dies in Chicago at age 71.

1991: Sharon Pratt is sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C., becoming the first black woman to head a city of Washington’s size and prominence.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991:Charles Plott and his family, operators of Charlanne Farms in Southington, send holiday packages containing meat, cheese, candy, toiletries and flea collars to nine soldiers serving in the Persian Gulf. Plott says the last item was included because he was told soldiers strap the collars on their ankles to ward of insects.

Belmont Pines Hospital, a $3.5 million adolescent psychiatric hospital with 68 beds, opens at 615 Church Hill-Hubbard Road.

The University of Colorado wins the Orange Bowl, 10-9, over Notre Dame, giving the Buffaloes the national college football championship.

1976: Campbell city schools are open for the first time since Nov. 18 when the district ran out of money.

For the first time since 1969, a boy wins the New Year’s baby derby at Youngstown hospitals. Christopher Alan Bosker, son of Arthur and Julianne Bosker of Youngstown, is born at 2:24 a.m. in North Side Hospital.

UCLA upsets Ohio State University, 23-10, in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes beat UCLA, 41-20, during the regular season and came into the Rose Bowl 15-point favorites.

1966: More than $10 million in highway projects is completed in the Youngstown district in 1965 and $39 million in federal, state and local funds is slated for on- going work.

Dr. Gene Mannella, formerly of Niles, is named laboratory chief at NASA’s electronic research center in Cambridge, Mass.

The Pennsylvania Legislature passes a bill giving state residents credit for income taxes they pay in other states. About 1,000 Lawrence County residents who have jobs in Ohio will be affected.

1941: Some 150 civic leaders attend a luncheon at the YMCA to plan the President’s Birthday Ball, which will take place Feb. 1 at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Nineteen New Year’s Day babies are born in Youngstown. The first was a girl born at 12:40 a.m. in St. Elizabeth Hospital to Mr. and Mrs. Carmen Renaldi of Youngstown.

Members of Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church pay off the $25,000 mortgage on their church.