YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Jan. 15, the 15th day of 2017. There are 350 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1559: England’s Queen Elizabeth I is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1777: The people of New Connecticut declare their independence. (The republic later became the state of Vermont.)

1892: The original rules of basketball, devised by James Naismith, are published for the first time in Springfield, Mass., where the game originated.

1929: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is born in Atlanta.

1942: Jawaharlal Nehru is named to succeed Mohandas K. Gandhi as head of India’s Congress Party.

1943: Work is completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War (now Defense).

1947: The mutilated remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as the “Black Dahlia,” are found in a vacant Los Angeles lot; her slaying remains unsolved.

1961: A U.S. Air Force radar tower off the New Jersey coast collapses into the Atlantic Ocean during a severe storm, killing all 28 men aboard.

1967: The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeat the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

1976: Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford in San Francisco. (Moore was released on the last day of 2007.)

1987: Entertainer Ray Bolger, perhaps best known for playing the Scarecrow in the 1939 MGM musical “The Wizard of Oz,” dies in Los Angeles at age 83.

1992: The Yugoslav federation, founded in 1918, effectively collapses as the European Community recognizes Croatia and Slovenia as independent countries.

2007: The Iraqi government hangs two of Saddam Hussein’s henchmen, including a half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim, who is decapitated by the noose.

“Babel” wins best movie drama and “Dreamgirls” is named best musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.

2009: US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditches his Airbus 320 in the Hudson River after a flock of birds disable both engines; all 155 people aboard survive.

2012: Addressing a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demands that Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, stop killing his own people, and says the “old order” of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East.

At the Golden Globes, “The Artist” wins best movie musical or comedy, while “The Descendants” wins best drama; on the TV side, “Homeland” wins best drama series while “Modern Family” is recognized as best musical or comedy series.

2016: Al-Qaida fighters attack a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso’s capital, killing 30 people.

A search begins for two Marine helicopters carrying 12 crew members that collided off the Hawaiian island of Oahu during a nighttime training mission; there are no survivors.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: Lower levels in the Meander Reservoir result in the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District suggesting water conservation by area residents and Niles City Council considering fines or water shutoffs to those who fail to comply.

Mahoning Valley Democratic members of the General Assembly say Gov. George Voinovich’s State of the State address was full of empty generalities. The governor called for “carefully considered revenue enhancements” to erase a projected $457 million budget deficit.

Elta E. McIntosh, 27, of Leavittsburg, drowns after her car crashes into the Grand River while she was driving to her job at a plastics company in Middlefield. She had just dropped off her three small children at her mother’s home.

1977: With much fanfare, ConRail’s No. 28, carrying its largest passenger load jammed into three cars, makes its final run between Cleveland and Youngstown, erasing Youngstown from the list of cities with regular passenger train service.

Rita Warren of Brockton, Mass., visits Youngstown on a statewide tour in which she is calling for prayer to be returned to Ohio public school classrooms. She says she chose Ohio for her campaign because its motto is “With God, Nothing is Impossible.”

Dr. A. Ranger Curran, 58, professor of management at Youngstown State University, says that while he is still being considered for the post of secretary of the Air Force, he is no longer No. 1 on the list.

1967: The Grapho Colloids Co. in Sharon, one of the area’s first graphite plants, changes ownership. It is bought by Kolchem Inc. of Emlenton.

Private duty registered nurses and private-duty licensed practical nurses increase their rates in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties to $25 a shift for RNs and $18.75 for LPNs.

Red Buttons, TV and film star, will entertain at the dedication of the remodeled sanctuary of Temple Anshe Emeth.

Two small children, Sandra Lee Miller, 4, and Daniel, 2, suffocate in a cedar chest in the their parents’ New Waterford home while playing hide and seek.

1942: Dr. Charles Scofield implies that a request that he resign as Struthers health commissioner is related to his opposition to legalizing marble boards and the “bug” racket.

Federal and state authorities will be asked by Youngstown district industrial executives to launch a vigorous campaign to gather iron and steel scrap for open hearths to keep up America’s war efforts.

The Youngstown Metropolitan area, with an official population of 372,428 is the 34th largest in the nation, ranking above Columbus, Memphis, Dayton, Toledo, Akron and San Antonio.