Today in History

Today is Tuesday, April 18, the 108th day of 2006. There are 257 days left in the year. On this date in 1906, a devastating earthquake strikes San Francisco, followed by raging fires. About 700 people die.
In 1775, Paul Revere begins his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British are coming. In 1921, Junior Achievement, created to encourage business skills in young people, is incorporated. In 1942, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raids Tokyo and other Japanese cities. In 1944, the ballet "Fancy Free," with music by Leonard Bernstein, premieres. In 1945, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, is killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa. In 1946, the League of Nations goes out of business. In 1955, physicist Albert Einstein dies in Princeton, N.J., at age 76. In 1956, actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco in a civil ceremony. (A church wedding takes place the next day.) In 1980, Zimbabwe Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe. In 1983, 62 people, including 17 Americans, are killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.
April 18, 1981: Heavy rains have raised the level in Berlin Reservoir to its highest elevation since 1971 and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to increase the amount of water flowing out of the reservoir.
Vincent Howard, 26, is in guarded condition in St. Elizabeth Hospital after two men robbed him of $400, shot him in the head and left him for dead.
The Struthers Coalition for Better Neighborhoods demands that city council do more to improve living conditions in Nebo and on the North Side.
April 18, 1966: A saucer-like flying object floats across an 80-mile route south of Youngstown in the early morning hours and was chased by two Portage County deputies and an East Palestine policeman.
Struthers Traffic Investigator Leo Dunn is honored in Columbus with the Ohio Petroleum Council's Traffic Safety Enforcement Award for exemplary traffic investigations.
Youngstown begins issuing warrants for the arrest of 500 persons for delinquent parking ticket holders during 1965.
April 18, 1956: J.L. Mauthe, president of the Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co., reveals that the steel company is analyzing the expenditure of another $15 million to $20 million on expanding and improving its Mahoning Valley plants.
A federal income tax bill of $4 million is handed to the Leon A. Beeghly Fund of Youngstown by the U.S. Tax Court for taxes owed by the Cold Metal Process Co., now liquidated.
Edward Johnson, traffic and parking specialist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, tells 250 persons at the final session of a parking clinic in Youngstown that if curb parking were properly policed and businessmen and the public support a tough policy, there would be less need for off-street parking downtown.
April 18, 1931: Columbiana County Sheriff William Barlow mounts a posse of men to search for Charles Clark, 34, with orders to bring him in "dead or alive." Barlow is accused of abducting a 23-year-old deaf-mute woman from New Waterford. She was released, suffering from fright and exposure, but otherwise unharmed.
Youngstown firemen rescue Miss Margaret Calhoun from her upstairs room at 882 Mahoning Ave., where she was overcome by smoke after fire caused by a gasoline explosion damaged the house.
The Thomas A. Becket cup, a plain ivory mug when owned by the churchman that was later bedecked with rubies, pearls and sapphires for Queen Catherine of Aragon, will be sold at auction and is expected to bring more than $10,000.