Today is Saturday, Jan. 26, the 26th day of 2019. There are 339 days left in the year.

January 26, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1784: In a letter to his daughter Sarah, Benjamin Franklin expresses unhappiness over the choice of the bald eagle as the symbol of America, and states his own preference: the turkey.

1837: Michigan becomes the 26th state.

1870: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1939: Principal photography begins for David O. Selznick’s movie version of “Gone with the Wind.”

1962: The United States launches Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon – but the probe ends up missing its target by more than 22,000 miles.

1992: Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton acknowledges “causing pain in my marriage” but said past problems are not relevant to the campaign.

1998: President Bill Clinton forcefully denies having an affair with a former White House intern, telling reporters, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

2005: A U.S. Marine helicopter crashes in western Iraq, killing 30 Marines and a Navy medic aboard.

2018: President Donald Trump tells an annual gathering of political and business elites in Switzerland that economic growth in the U.S. under his “America first” agenda could benefit the globe.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Arby’s, which has its origins in Youngstown, announces that it is banning smoking in its company-owned restaurants, the first restaurant chain to do so.

Local reaction to President Bill Clinton’s State of the Union address is largely positive. U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland applauds the president for focusing on welfare and health care reform, but says he would have liked to have heard more about trade policy and job creation.

Reid Duhlberger, vice president of the Youngstown Warren Chamber of Commerce, says a 65 percent corporate franchise tax credit has been offered to Penn Plastics, a Pittsburgh manufacturer that is considering relocating to Austintown or Wheeling, W.Va.

1979: New Castle City Council President Eugene DeCaprio says the city’s pension funds are in shaky financial condition.

A former Pennsylvania state construction inspector is indicted in Pittsburgh for allegedly accepting $1,000 in illegal gifts and seeking a $4,500 kickback from the Joseph Bucheit & Sons Co. of Youngstown, prime contractor on a $21 million bridge.

The American Heart Association’s Mahoning Branch opens its drive with a kickoff ceremony featuring Bill Narduzzi and the Youngstown State University football team at Southern Park Mall.

1969: Boardman Police Chief Donald Hawkins resigns, accusing Trustee Harold Perkins of interfering in police department affairs.

Youngstown Public Schools will have $766,711 less general income in 1969 to educate its 27,000 children. That’s due to a defeat of a 12-mill operating levy in November.

Boardman High School’s speech team wins the sweepstakes trophy at the Kent Roosevelt High School individual events tournament.

1944: Mahoning County’s scrap paper drive gets underway, and students at Youngstown Covington School already have collected more than a ton.

Ralph Sheely, alias Richard Howard, 22 W. Wood St., a two-time probationer under the jurisdiction of Probation Officer George Hadnett, confesses to furnishing saws used by two army deserters in an escape attempt at Mahoning County Jail.

Walter Mitchell, finance director under former Mayor William Spagnola, was slated for a tax consultant’s job under Mayor Ralph O’Neill, but he turns it down.