YEARS AGO FOR JANUARY 31

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2018. There are 334 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1606: Englishman Guy Fawkes, convicted of high treason for his part in the “Gunpowder Plot,” is set to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but breaks his neck after falling or jumping from the scaffold.

1865: The U.S. House of Representatives joins the Senate in passing the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery, sending it to states for ratification. (It was adopted in December 1865.)

1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Gold Reserve Act.

1958: The United States enters the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

1971: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blast off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

2008: President George W. Bush says he will not jeopardize security gains in Iraq by withdrawing U.S. forces too quickly.

2013: Chuck Hagel emerges from his grueling confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee with solid Democratic support for his nomination to be President Barack Obama’s next defense secretary.

2017:President Donald Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch, a fast-rising conservative judge, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: After Youngstown Superintendent Alfred Tutela’s first six months on the job, reviews are mixed. “I like his organization. I like his approach,” says former board member McCullough Williams, who opposed Tutela’s hiring. “He’s just impolite. I think that has turned off most of the teaching staff,” says John Senzarin, teachers’ union president.

Michael I. Monus, who faces 129 charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering, says he was conducting his own investigation into irregularities at Phar-Mor when he was fired as company co-chairman.

On the 25th anniversary of the Tet offensive, Vietnam veteran Frank Galich of Struthers says the battle taught him, “Always be prepared. Don’t take anything for granted.”

1978: Former Warren Assistant Fire Chief Clarence Hipple wins an appeal to the 11th District Court of Appeals over his entitlement to overtime and holiday pay when he retired. He will receive severance of more than $21,000.

Twelve steel companies, including five with operations in the Mahoning Valley, file a lawsuit demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency “revise and update” national air pollution standards.

Mayor J. Phillip Richley fires two employees in the city’s Community Development Agency, a move that likely will be appealed to the Civil Service Commission.

1968: The Ohio House of Representatives passes a bill that will create a new 11th District Court of Appeals that will comprise Trumbull, Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake and Portage counties.

Mrs. John Keener carries her three small sons to safety when fire breaks out in their home on Bon Air Avenue. Children playing with a lighter ignited a first-floor closet.

Naval Hospitalman Keith R. Bacorn of Warren dies of wounds received during action near Camp Carroll, Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam.

1943: Kennie Wolf, an 11-year-old home-schooled lad, is carrying a full course of chemistry, math and music classes at Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Youngstown may be asked to stay on “war time” even if Ohio votes to turn back Ohio’s clocks.

Army, Air Force and Navy men dominate the scene in Hotel Pick-Ohio as 2,000 couples celebrated President Roosevelt’s 61st birthday by helping the fight against infantile paralysis.

Youngstown’s Union National Bank is listed among the nation’s largest 300 banks in the 1943 roll call by American Banker.