YEARS AGO ON MARCH 4

Today is Saturday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2017. There are 302 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)

1791: Vermont becomes the 14th state.

1837: The Illinois town of Chicago is incorporated as a city with a population of 4,170.

1917: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana takes her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

1937: At the Ninth Academy Awards, “The Great Ziegfeld” is named outstanding production of 1936 and its leading lady, Luise Rainer, best actress; Paul Muni won best actor for “The Story of Louis Pasteur.”

1952: Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis are married in California.

1987: President Ronald Reagan addresses the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.

2012: Vladimir Putin scores a decisive victory in Russia’s presidential election to return to the Kremlin and extend his hold on power for six more years.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: First Western Bancorp Inc,. parent of First National Bank in New Castle, Pa., buys the recently vacated Universal Rundle Corp. office building at 303 E. North St. for the bank’s data-processing department.

The four-member Trumbull County Board of Elections deadlocks on electing a director, with the two Democrats voting for Lynn Augustine and the Republicans voting for Patricia Fisher. Secretary of State Robert Taft will break the tie.

As many as 100 long-distance telephone operators in Youngstown will see their jobs eliminated through new technology. Nationally, AT&T will eliminate a third of its 18,000 operators and close 31 offices, including the Youngstown site.

1977: Gina Hopson, a junior student at The Rayen School, will represent Northeastern Ohio at a seminar for high-performing science students hosted by Ohio Bell Telephone Co. at the Bell Laboratories in New Jersey.

Officials at the Niles generating plant of the Ohio Edison Co. outline for Niles City Council the firm’s efforts to reduce the amount of fly ash being emitted.

General Motors Lordstown van assembly plant is running two 10-hour shifts, producing about 700 vans a day.

1967: Dr. Earland I. Carlson of Decatur, Ill., is elected president of Westminster College.

About 85 people attend orientation at the Isaly Auditorium for the 1967 Youngstown Soap Box Derby, which will be run July 9 on Midlothian Boulevard.

Marine Pfc. John P. O’Donnell, 19, of Youngstown, a 1966 Ursuline graduate who arrived in Vietnam on Feb. 1, is reported killed in action.

1942: Edward Tomlinson, author and radio commentator, tells the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce that South Americans have no use for Adolph Hitler.

Heavy snowfall brings drifts of up to 18 inches, making highways in the Youngstown area difficult to travel and closing the municipal airport.

Lee V. Boardman, special agent in charge of the Cleveland FBI office, tells Mahoning Valley police chiefs and sheriffs that speed is essential in tracking down enemy agents and bringing them to justice.

There’s an urgent need for quickly built houses costing no more than $6,000, the FHA tells a meeting of 70 contractors, Realtors and bankers in Warren.