YEARS AGO ON MARCH 1

Today is Wednesday, March 1, the 60th day of 2017. There are 305 days left in the year. Today is Ash Wednesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1565: The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded by Portuguese knight Estacio de Sa.

1792: Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II dies; he is succeeded by his son, Francis II.

1815: Napoleon, having escaped exile in Elba, heads for Paris to begin his “Hundred Days” rule.

1932: Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.)

1954: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire from the spectators’ gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.

1957: “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss is first released.

1961: President John F. Kennedy signs an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.

2007: Tornadoes kill 20 people in the Midwest and Southeast, including eight students at Enterprise High School in Alabama.

2012: Senate Democrats narrowly block, 51-48, an effort by Republicans to overturn President Barack Obama’s order that most employers or their insurers cover the cost of contraceptives.

Online publisher and conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart dies in Los Angeles at age 43.

2016: In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, Republican Donald Trump trounces his competition, winning seven states.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: Youngstown’s epidemic of violence has become the focus of national and international attention, including stories in USA Today, the London Independent and Japan’s Daily Yomieri.

Austintown Fitch makes a 16-8 spurt in the second period to edge Woodrow Wilson 53-50 for a girls’ Division I sectional title. Dana Sulenski had 18 points and Natal Rosko, 13, for Fitch.

Area labor leaders, who backed U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Poland, in his run for president in 1988 are withholding their support this year.

1977: Youngstown City Council President Emanuel Catsoules announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for mayor of Youngstown at a press conference at the Brown Derby Restaurant on South Avenue.

Allegheny Airlines alters its departure and arrival times for its two daily round-trip flights between the Youngstown Municipal Airport and the Pittsburgh Airport.

U.S Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, says burglars broke into his Washington, D.C., home and stole $30,000 worth of gold medals and silverware, including medals he was awarded for his 1962 space flight.

1967: Youngstown Industrialist Marvin Itts receives the National Community Service award of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in Hollywood, Fla.

The mercury at Youngstown Municipal Airport plunges to 1 degree above zero, a record low for the date.

U.S. Rep. Joseph Vigorito, D-Erie, says the Army Corps of Engineers’ estimate of $1 billion for construction of a Lake Erie-Ohio River canal would increase by as much as $250 million.

1942: State highway patrolmen arrest a 19-year-old Hubbard man who confessed to driving the car that struck and killed William Gelderman, 11, on McGuffey Road.

There is no immediate need for blackouts in the Youngstown area, says the national director of civil defense. Coastal areas will observe air raid blackouts.

Mahoning County farmers, who have virtually ignored soy beans in the past will heed Uncle Sam’s plea that production be increased.

Century Construction builds 50 prefabricated homes off South Belle Vista Avenue near Mill Creek Park. They will sell for $4,800 or $5,100 with a garage.