Years Ago | January 15th

Vindicator file photo / January 23, 1963 | Graduates of the Choffin School of Practical Nursing received their diplomas at Princeton Junior High School 60 years ago. First row, from left, Marsha Baran, Rosemarie Dominic, Eleanor Palone, Ada Lehnerd, Roberta Wollam; Second row, Arlene Evans, Janice Patton, Bessie LaBuda, Peggy Richards, Dorothy Casto; third row, Patricia Wittenauer, LaVonne Kidd, Lucille Mazza, Karen Nemeth, Cornelia Baciu; Fourth Row, Antoinette Biviano,, Andrea Van Jura, Joanne Ligore, Rosalie Butch, Joyce Bell; Fifth row, Evelyn Black, Elizabeth Kimbrough, Dorothy Daniels, Alberta Krafcheck, Nancy Clark; Sixth row, Marie Mike, Evelyn Domhoff, Ada Hodory, Henrietta Thomson and Hallie Himes.
January 15
1998: Responding to an appeal by Youngstown Mayor George McKelvey, the state commission overseeing the operation of Youngstown city schools delays its vote on a plan to close two elementary schools and turn East High into a middle school.
A Salem city street department worker is appealing his being fired for using city equipment to salt his own driveway by claiming that he had been doing so for four years without consequences and shouldn't be penalized now.
Murder charges are dismissed against a 19-year-old Youngstown man charged in the fatal shooting of a clerk at the Woodland Food Market in Youngstown. A jury had deadlocked on a verdict, with three voting for conviction and nine for acquittal.
1983: Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. asks that his trial in federal court on bribery and tax evasion charges be moved from Northeastern Ohio because "extensive prejudicial media coverage" has tainted the jury pool.
The Rev. Gary Frost is installed as pastor of the New Rising Star Baptist Church on Shehy Street in Youngstown.
Pope John Paul II condemns the death penalty, the first time a Roman Catholic pontiff has spoken out against capital punishment.
1973: Mrs. Era Allen of Wampum, Pa., is named Baseball Mother of the Year at the Curbstone Coaches dinner attended by 700 at the Idora Ballroom. Chuck Tanner, American League manager of the year, was the speaker.
A 35-year-old Southern Ohio man becomes a woman through surgery performed by Dr. Richard Murray at North Side Hospital. It is the first such procedure performed in Youngstown.
1948: A $75,000 fire routs five night-duty nurses from their beds at the residential wing of the Mahoning County Tuberculosis Sanatorium. One, Mary Haid, was rescued from her room by Austintown Fire Chief Evans.
U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, D-Youngstown, is unanimously elected chairman of the Democratic congressional campaign committee, the first northerner in history to hold the post.
An emergency trolley bus route is under construction on Front Street to enable Youngstown's three biggest bus lines to bypass Federal Street when it is closed for parades, fires, or other events.