YEARS AGO
Today is Jan. 21, the 21st day of 2017. There are 344 days left in the year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On this date in:
1793: During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, is executed on the guillotine.
1861: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four other Southerners whose states had seceded from the Union resign from the U.S. Senate.
1908: New York City’s Board of Aldermen pass a law prohibiting women from smoking in public establishments (the measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.).
1924: Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin dies at age 53.
1942: Pinball machines are banned in New York City by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia after a court rules they are gambling devices that rely on chance rather than skill (the ban was lifted in 1976).
1968: The Battle of Khe Sanh begins during the Vietnam
1997: Speaker Newt Gingrich is reprimanded and fined as the House votes for the first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
2016: The Obama administration tightens restrictions on European and other travelers who have visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan in the previous five years.
VINDICATOR FILES
1992: A Kent State University sociology professor, Werner J. Lange, says Youngstown’s high homicide rate has more to do with lack of parental guidance and widespread unemployment than with the drug culture.
The Pittsburgh Steelers name Bill Cowher, a Pittsburgh native and defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, their new head coach, succeeding Chuck Noll.
Trumbull County commissioners vote unanimously to place an increase of 0.25-percent to the county sales tax on the May ballot.
1977: A 17-year-old Hubbard boy, Perry Massullo, suffocates after becoming trapped in a metal storage bin he was filling with shelled corn on the family’s poultry farm on West Middlesex-Hubbard Road.
Gov. James A. Rhodes orders schools closed in a 24-county area of western Ohio for up to 30 days to conserve natural gas while severe weather affects supplies.
A fire of undetermined origin causes $30,000 damage to the Bishop Road home of Pierce Bailey, president of the Ohio Water Service.
1967: Two men, the fathers of 15 children, drown after falling through the ice on Berlin Reservoir while riding a power sled. Dead are Noah Hershberger, 37, of Hartville and John Kramer, 37, of Atwater.
Operating funds of more than $6 million a year and millions more in capital improvement money are contingent on Youngstown University becoming a state institution by July. 1.
Nancy J. Lora of Salem, a sophomore music education student at Otterbein College, is awarded a $250 music scholarship from John Stanley, owner of Stanton’s Music Store in Columbus.
1942: Atty. John W. Ford, one of the most distinguished members of the Mahoning County bar, is appointed by Gov. John Bricker to succeed the late George Gessner on the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Sam Stites and H.B. Gould are named black-out coordinators for the Mahoning County Office of Civilian Defense.
Steve Belichick, former Struthers football player now with the Detroit Lions, is one of 80 athletes who report to Lt. Cmdr. Gene Tunney, former heavyweight boxing champion, who is recruiting physical instructors for the Navy and Marines.