YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Jan. 16, the 16th day of 2016. There are 350 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1547: Ivan IV of Russia (popularly known as “Ivan the Terrible”) is crowned czar.

1865: Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman decrees that 400,000 acres in the South will be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former slaves. (The order, later revoked by President Andrew Johnson, is believed to have inspired the expression, “Forty acres and a mule.”)

1883: The U.S. Civil Service Commission is established.

1920: Prohibition begins in the United States as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution takes effect, one year to the day after its ratification. (It later was repealed by the 21st Amendment.)

1935: Fugitive gangster Fred Barker and his mother, Kate “Ma” Barker, are killed in a shootout with the FBI at Lake Weir, Fla.

1942: Actress Carole Lombard, 33, her mother, Elizabeth, and 20 other people are killed when their plane crashes near Las Vegas while en route to California from a war-bond promotion tour.

1957: Three B-52s take off from Castle Air Force Base in California on the first nonstop, round-the-world flight by jet planes, which lasted 45 hours and 19 minutes.

1969: Two manned Soviet Soyuz spaceships become the first vehicles to dock in space and transfer personnel.

1978: NASA chooses 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who becomes America’s first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who becomes America’s first black astronaut in space.

1989: Three days of rioting begin in Miami when a police officer fatally shoots Clement Lloyd, a black motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of Lloyd’s passenger, Allan Blanchard. (The officer, William Lozano, was convicted of manslaughter but was acquitted in a retrial.)

1991: The White House announces the start of Operation Desert Storm to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. (Allied forces prevailed Feb. 28, 1991.)

1992: Officials of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war that has left at least 75,000 people dead.

2003: The space shuttle Columbia blasts off for what turned out to be its last flight; on board was Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. (The mission ended in tragedy on Feb. 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven crew members.)

2006: A U.S. military helicopter crashes north of Baghdad, killing the two crew members; it is the third American chopper to go down in 10 days.

“Brokeback Mountain” wins four Golden Globes, including best motion picture drama; “Lost” wins best dramatic television series, and “Desperate Housewives” wins for best musical or comedy series.

2011: Former Haitian strongman Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who’d been living in exile in France, makes a surprise return to Haiti as the country wrestles with a political crisis, cholera outbreak and stalled reconstruction from a devastating earthquake.

2015: President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron meet at the White House; Obama argues that a resurgent fear of terrorism across Europe and the United States should not lead countries to overreact and shed privacy protections, while Cameron presses for more government access to encrypted communications used by U.S. companies.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: The Rev. Lonnie Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, calls on blacks to promote peace because he says they represent a disproportionately high number of men in uniform and will suffer the greatest casualties if America goes to war in the Persian Gulf.

A group of Youngstown State University students is attempting to save a rare Oriental oak tree on Wick Avenue from being cut down to make way for construction of the McDonough Art Museum.

State Rep. Ronald Gerberry of Austintown is restored to his chairmanship of the House Education Committee, two years after speaker Verne Riffe stripped him of the position for voting against a tort-reform bill Riffe supported.

1976: Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter tells the National Gaming Council meeting in Cleveland that he does not favor legalized gambling as a tool against organized crime but would prefer to see stricter enforcement of laws prohibiting gambling.

Brothers Jason and Jeffrey Franceschelli have 13 new playmates – puppies born to their pet St. Bernard, Pee Wee. Originally there were 15 puppies, but two died shortly after birth.

Thomas E. Fornear, director of development for the Western Reserve Economic Development Agency, is elected chairman of the board of Eastgate Development and Transportation Agency.

1966: Bids will be opened in Harrisburg, Pa., for reconstruction of two small bridges in northern Mercer County, one over Deer Creek on Route 208 and a wooden bridge over Taylor Run.

Cardinal Mooney High School places first in five out of six speech events to win the T.C. Bond tournament at Niles McKinley High School.

1941: Schools Superintendent Pliny Powers and George Madtes, president of the symphony society, announce postponement of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra’s Children’s Concert because of an influenza outbreak.

The congregation of Trinity Methodist Church approves a $425,000 program for remodeling and building an addition.

The entire 135th Field Artillery Regiment, including members of Youngstown’s First Battalion Headquarters Battery, fight a fire in the Desoto National Forest at Camp Shelby, Miss.