YEARS AGO FOR JAN. 2

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2019. There are 363 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1788: Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1929: The United States and Canada reach an agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.

1935: Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty and executed.)

1960: Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts launches his successful bid for the presidency.

1967: Republican Ronald Reagan takes the oath of office as the new governor of California.

1974: President Richard Nixon signs legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles an hour as a way of conserving gasoline in the face of an OPEC oil embargo. (The 55 mph limit is effectively phased out in 1987; federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.)

2006: A methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia claims the lives of 12 miners, but one miner, Randal McCloy, Jr., was eventually rescued.

2017: Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said he would not seek re-election after serving more than 40 years in the Senate; the announcement cleared the way for 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to successfully run for the seat.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Among more than 60 area residents cited as People Who Made a Difference are Diane Less-Baird and Polly Wardle, who founded Angels for Animals three years ago.

Mill Creek Park is marking the 25th anniversary of its ice skating rink, which opened Feb. 15, 1968. The first skater was Edward Hulme, now 71, who tended to Servomation’s vending machines at the rink.

Joe Paterno’s Penn State Nittany Lions defeat the University of Tennessee 31-13 at the Citrus Bowl. Paterno tied Alabama Coach Bear Bryant for bowl victories at 15.

1979: A Campbell woman and two of her brothers are wounded after a New Year’s celebratory shot fired from a house at 1504 Hiram St. in Youngstown is interpreted as an attack by the Outlaws motorcycle gang, whose clubhouse is at 1503 Hiram. Thirteen Outlaws are arrested and a semiautomatic rifle, shotguns and handguns are confiscated by police.

Ellsworth Fire Chief Richard Pellin, 26, has no time to celebrate when an alarm came in 15 seconds after he officially took over at midnight. He and some other firemen at the station ringing in the new year responded to the report of a water heater exploding at a house on Akron-Canfield Road.

C. Kenneth Proefrock, executive director of the Mahoning-Shenango Area Health Education Network, takes an administrative position with the new Medical College of Ohio at Toledo.

1969: The public schools in Youngstown open their doors for nearly 27,000 pupils for the first time since Nov. 27, but the flu bug keeps many teachers and pupils confined to their homes. Fifty teachers call off.

A train-car crash during a blinding snowfall in Conneaut kills three people, a young couple planning a wedding this month and their best man. Dead are Margaret Mooney, Raymond Morrow and Darrell Mullins.

Ronald Moritz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Moritz is born at 2:59 a.m. on New Year’s Day, making him the city’s first baby of 1969.

1944: Twenty-six traffic fatalities in Youngstown in 1943 is the lowest since 1932 and 1926, when 23 died in traffic accidents.

Industrial Youngstown, geared for war, turns out about a half billion dollars’ worth of war goods in 1943. Chances are steel plants will have a similar year in 1944.

Rodney Chisolm Jr. of Youngstown is heard over WFMJ radio, broadcasting from Italy in a New Year’s show put on from fighting fronts all over the world. He was one of a trio called the ABCs of Rhythm.