YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, Jan. 23, the 23rd day of 2017. There are 342 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1516: King Ferdinand II of Aragon, who with his late queen consort, Isabella of Castile, sponsored the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492, dies in Madrigalejo, Spain.

1845: Congress decides all national elections will take place the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

1933: The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the so-called “Lame Duck Amendment,” is ratified as Missouri approved it.

1944: Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (“The Scream”) dies near Oslo at age 80.

1964: The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, is ratified as South Dakota became the 38th state to endorse it.

1989: Surrealist artist Salvador Dali dies in his native Figueres, Spain, at age 84.

2007: In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush implores Congress to give his plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq a chance to work.

2016: A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brings much of the East Coast to a standstill, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding thousands of travelers and shutting down Washington, D.C., and New York City.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: About 75 people from Mercer and Lawrence counties are among anti-abortion demonstrators who gather in Washington, D.C., and rally on the Mall.

Rudolph E. Milian, corporate manager of shopping center operations for the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp., says baby boomers are rapidly becoming the single largest consumer group in the nation.

Youngstown Councilman Joseph Naples, D-3rd, says city school officials have an obligation to clean up Rayen Stadium, which has been deteriorating since it was abandoned 10 years ago.

1977: Sylvester “Sal” Paolone, who learned his trade even before his family moved from Italy to Girard in 1920, retires after 60 years of repairing shoes, most of that time in his shop at 11 N. State St.

State Sen. R. Budd Dwyer of Meadville, predicts that the Pennsylvania Legislature will have to address the state’s Sunday “Blue Laws” that have been subject to a mishmash of amendments since they were enacted in 1774.

Reaction from Mahoning Valley veterans groups is swift and unanimous to President Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam-era draft dodgers. “We are 100 percent opposed,” says Ralph Barber, commander of American Legion Post 732.

1967: Speaking at the second annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church, the Most Rev. James W. Malone, apostolic delegate of the Youngstown Diocese, says those who seek Christian unity pattern themselves after Christ.

A new high temperature record of 60 degrees is recorded at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Detailed plans and a model of Eastwood Mall, a proposed regional shopping center, are disclosed by William Cafaro Associates and Victor Natale, Warren Realtor.

1942: Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge David Jenkins gives the oath of office to Judge John W. Ford, who was appointed to the seat of the late George Gessner.

Marie Elana Anzevino, 5-month-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Anzevino, Oak Park Avenue, can balance herself in the palm of her mother’s hand.

Showing the tremendous boost in war business in the Mahoning Valley, unfilled orders of Aetna Standard Engineering Co. have jumped to more than $13 million.

As a patriotic service, five Youngstown iron and steel dealers will handle all old metal gathered in the “scrap for cash” campaign without profit.