21 WFMJ  archives / Feb. 25, 1976 | Accepting the first ticket 50 years ago to the Bicentennial Ball  that would be held July 3 in Idora Park  was Clingan Jackson, chairman of the Bicentennial Commission and Vindicator politics editor. Fred D'Amico, seated, was head of ticket sales,  and Richard King, center, commission secretary.  Standing from left, Mrs. Paul Alessi, Mrs. Louise Meadows, Mrs. Ella Kerber Perrin, Edward J. Hulme, Mrs. Laynne Morain, Mrs. Dainty Williams, Gerri D'Amico, and Mrs. Elsie Dieter.

March 1

2001: Linda Robb, a sixth-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary in Lisbon, is one of 23 people nationwide to receive a Carnegie Hero Medal, which also carries a $3,500 cash prize. Robb was honored for talking a sixth-grade student in another classroom into leaving the classroom and surrendering a loaded 9 mm pistol he was using to threaten 20 students and another teacher. 

After 58 years, Albert Dzurinda finally has the diploma from Sharon High School that he missed out on when he enlisted in the Navy in 1943 to fight in World War II. After retiring from Westinghouse Electric, he began speaking to high school students about the War from a young soldier's perspective, which was deemed sufficient to meet any academic requirements. 

Warren Mayor Hank Angelo said six parties have expressed interest in buying the city-owned Avalon South golf course. He recommended an appraisal in case the city decides to sell because of its financial woes. 

 

1986: A panel of three Trumbull County Common Pleas judges, Mitchell F. Shaker, Robert A. Nader, and David F. McLain, sentenced Danny Lee Hill to death for the brutal slaying of Raymond Fife, writing that the brutality of the murder outweighed any of the six possible mitigating factors. Hill will be the 59 th person on death row awaiting execution and will be the youngest at 19.

The British Petroleum Co. ousts Standard Oil Co.'s chairman and president after taking 55 percent of the Cleveland-based oil giant. 

GATX Corp., which had historic Valley ties, now has three vying to take control, with the highest current bid being $42 in cash and securities per share. 

 

1976: The girls' basketball team of the Fairhaven School for the Retarded in Niles wins the Division I championship at the first female Special Olympics basketball competition at Ohio State University.

Youngstown's three major hospitals, which banned visitation because of the spread of respiratory illnesses, have now asked that friends and relatives limit their phone calls to patients because switchboards are being overloaded. 

The city of Youngstown is ordered by a visiting common pleas judge to reduce its water surcharge for suburban customers from 40 percent to 27 percent and refund all outside users for the difference. Assistant Law Director James Corbett says the city will appeal.

 

1951: Youngstown area children have a chance to watch themselves on television at Strouss-Hirshberg South Side Appliance Store, where a representative of RCA   has set up a television camera linked directly to the sets on sale. The demonstration will last a week. 

Youngstown Councilman John Barber asks for repeal of the city's 7-mill corporate tax and proposes an increase in the income tax from 3 mills to 5 mills. The city's biggest industrial concerns have filed suit to block the corporate tax. 

Safecrackers operating in the shadow of City Hall and the police station escape with $250 in cash and checks, along with an assortment of gum and cigarettes, after ripping open a 1,200-pound safe at the Warren Bowling Alley, 22 S. Phelps Street.