YEARS AGO FOR MARCH 3

Today is Sunday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2019. There are 303 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1791: Congress passes a measure taxing distilled spirits; it is the first internal revenue act in U.S. history.

1931: “The Star-Spangled Banner” becomes the national anthem of the United States.

1959: The United States launches the Pioneer 4 spacecraft, which flies by the moon.

1960: Lucille Ball files for divorce from her husband, Desi Arnaz, a day after they had finished filming the last episode of “The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show” on Arnaz’s 43rd birthday.

1985: Coal miners in Britain end a year-long strike.

1991: Motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.

2002: Voters in Switzerland approve joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Mahoning County commissioners ask the Chamber of Commerce to recommend a replacement on the Western Reserve Port Authority for William G. Lyden, who resigned from the board.

Trying to diffuse racial tensions, Trumbull Correctional Institution officials ship 16 inmates to other prisons (12 Muslims and four members of the Aryan Brotherhood).

The congregation of Queen of the Holy Rosary in Vienna and the Youngstown Catholic Diocese are involved in talks to reconcile the independent 160-member chapel with the diocese. The chapel, which conducts traditional services in Latin, broke from the diocese when the Rev. John Roach was pastor.

1979: The city of Youngstown and Beckett Aviation Corp. win a federal court decision upholding their right to restrict people from airport operating facilities unless they are accompanied by a security guard. Joseph Kubic, who formerly operating a flying school at the airport, filed suit challenging the security guard rule.

Youngstown police raid Chaney High School arresting two adults and six juveniles in connection with drug sales.

Youngstown State University’s wrestling team finishes fourth in the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament held at Brookings, S.D.

1969: A neighbor’s heroism is credited with saving a Hubbard Township resident after flames spread through a home, injuring four sisters and doing $6,000 in damage. Elmer Clark found Ronald Noel face down, overcome by smoke and dragged him to safety.

Maria Corante, 18, an exchange student from Lima, Peru, attending classes at Springfield Local High School, sees snow for the first time.

Traffic carnage over the weekend leaves seven dead in the area, including Moses Bell Jr., 22, and Willie Ann Russell, 19, who were killed when their car slid and struck a tree on snow-covered McMyler Street.

1944: Twenty water department laborers and non-civil service employees are dismissed over two weeks by Water Commissioner J. Joseph Smith who is reorganizing his department’s labor crews.

McKelvey’s Men’s Store Easter sale: cadet suits, $18.98; boy’s new spring fingertip coats, $13.95; men’s ties, $1, and Fruit of the Loom Easter shirts, $2.