YEARS AGO FOR JAN. 19

Today is Saturday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2019. There are 346 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1807: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is born in Westmoreland County, Va.

1809: Author, poet and critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston.

1937: Millionaire Howard Hughes sets a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

1942: During World War II, Japanese forces capture the British protectorate of North Borneo.

1944: The federal government relinquishes control of the nation’s railroads to their owners after settlement of a wage dispute.

1953: CBS-TV airs the widely watched episode of “I Love Lucy” in which Lucy Ricardo, played by Lucille Ball, gives birth to Little Ricky. (By coincidence, Ball gave birth the same day to her son, Desi Arnaz Jr.)

1966: Indira Gandhi is chosen to be prime minister of India by the National Congress party.

1977: President Gerald R. Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American convicted of treason for making radio broadcasts aimed at demoralizing Allied troops in the Pacific Theater during World War II. (Although she was popularly referred to as “Tokyo Rose,” D’Aquino never used that name.)

1981: The United States and Iran sign an accord paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Another record-breaking low is registered at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport when the mercury drops to minus 22, the coldest since the Weather Service began keeping records in 1944.

Gary Mink wins back his job as chief of the Cortland police chief after persuading the civil service commission that Mayor Robert Moyers had political motives in demoting Mink to patrolman.

The Warren Board of Education will meet with the Ohio School Boards Association to begin a search for a new superintendent. Louis Cardamone is retiring in June.

1979: State Rep. Thomas J. Carney, chairman of the Ohio House Energy and Environment Committee, plans to draft a bill reforming oil- and gas-drilling laws by July.

Anthony Centofanti, administrative aide to U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, Youngstown Mayor J. Phillip Richley and Jonathan Orloff, staff representative for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., are barred from attending a meeting between officials of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. and USW Local 1452 to discuss the future of the Brier Hill Works.

Some 40 police officers from Youngstown and Austintown raid 13 bars and homes in the area, arresting 57 people and confiscating drugs, guns and explosives.

1969: Increases in traffic accidents, personal injury accidents and traffic deaths that occurred in Youngstown in 1968 are attributed to continuing bad driving habits.

Warren city police and fire associations vote unanimously to reject a “take it or leave it” proposal made by the city. The safety forces want the starting salary to be increased from $6,720 to $9,600.

The J.C. Penney Co. will open its largest area store, a 117,000-square foot, two-story site, in the Shenango Valley Mall in Hermitage. Penney has had stores in Sharon, Pa., for 47 years.

1944: Deputy Sheriff John Hamady foils an escape from the Mahoning County Jail by two inmates who were cutting through the last bar blocking their dash to freedom through an outside window.

There is concern that the winter’s severe drought may prevent Youngstown district reservoirs from storing the water needed by district industries.

Elaine Shepard, the Chesterfield girl, and movie star Charles Ruggles arrive in Youngstown for the second day of the war bond rallies being held in Mahoning Valley mills.