Today in History

Today is Tuesday, April 4, the 94th day of 2006. There are 271 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
In 1818, Congress decides the flag of the United States will consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union. In 1841, President Harrison succumbs to pneumonia one month after his inauguration, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office. In 1850, the city of Los Angeles is incorporated. In 1902, British financier Cecil Rhodes leaves $10 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University. In 1906, TV newsman and personality John Cameron Swayze is born in Wichita, Kan. In 1945, during World War II, U.S. troops on Okinawa encounter the first significant resistance from Japanese forces. In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, sign the North Atlantic Treaty. In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, are killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashes shortly after take-off from Saigon. In 1981, Henry Cisneros becomes the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city: San Antonio. In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roars into orbit on its maiden voyage.
April 4, 1981: The Mahoning Avenue Viaduct in New Castle is closed for repairs that could take weeks after a large chunk of concrete breaks away from the pier.
The way has been cleared in Columbus for a House vote on a $9.15 billion budget bill for the fiscal year starting July 1.
The 400-member former Tabernacle United Presbyterian Church, Austintown, which voted to leave the communion over theological difference, is considering affiliation with the newly formed Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
April 4, 1966: After weeks of wrangling, Warren City Council is near agreement on a $636,972 program of capital improvements.
Dr. Cleve Wilson Ricksecker, 81, principal of Chaney High School for 29 years, and one of Youngstown's best known educators, dies following a heart attack at his home, 1627 Volney Road.
Traffic jams in a half-dozen Youngstown district railroad yards are being untangled and normal switching and train service restored on the Pennsylvania Railroad after a four-day strike ends.
April 4, 1956: More than 700 dairy farmers meet in a barn in North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, to form an association to negotiate milk prices with dairies in Cleveland, Akron and Canton. The farmers say that if they are not treated fairly they will reluctantly conduct a strike, withholding their milk from the market.
Boardman Methodist Church will begin construction in May of two new wings that will cost $300,000 and give the church a U-shape.
Youngstown income tax collections increased 24 percent for the first quarter of 1956 over the same period a year earlier, says Finance Director Nicholas Bernard.
April 4, 1931: Each side will be limited to 45 minutes when attorneys representing Prosecutor Ray L. Thomas and the five common pleas judges clash in the Ohio Supreme Court over the judges' attempt to impanel a grand jury to investigate Thomas's relationship with local utility companies.
Thousands of Ohioans are attracted to Chardon, the sweetest spot in the state, for the annual Spring Maple Festival.
Lew G. Raver of Newport Drive, Youngstown, was born on Easter Sunday April 10, 1898, but this is the first year since that the calendar will allow him to again celebrate his birthday on Easter.