Today is Friday, April 11, the 102nd day of 2008. There are 264 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Friday, April 11, the 102nd day of 2008. There are 264 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which includes the Fair Housing Act, a week after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1689, William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain. In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates as Emperor of the French and is banished to the island of Elba. In 1898, as tensions with Spain continue to rise, President McKinley asks Congress to authorize military intervention in Cuba. In 1899, the treaty ending the Spanish-American War is declared in effect. In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberate the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany.

April 11, 1983: Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini gets a gala send off for his title fight in South Africa during a dinner in his honor at the VIP in Niles.

Vineyards stretching from Toledo to Buffalo have asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for a designation of “Lake Erie” on wines that come from the region.

Divers from the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Department recover two cars from a strip-mining pond on Morris Road in Elkrun Township and believe one more car may be in the pond.

April 11, 1968: The general curfew imposed on Youngstown for three nights because of racial unrest is lifted by Mayor Anthony B. Flask. The ban on sale of intoxicating beverages is also lifted.

Spec. 4 Andre Babyak, 21, of Youngstown dies in Vietnam of burns received in a base camp during a fire fight with hostile forces.

Members of the Youngstown Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartets Singing in America will celebrate its 20th anniversary during “Harmony Week.”

April 11, 1958: An anonymous threatening phone call is received by the Rev. Paul W. Gauss, D.D., executive secretary of the Youngstown Council of Churches, as a result of a statement by the council’s executive committee calling for desegregation of housing in the Youngstown area.

Former President Harry Truman returns to Washington to give some advice to Congress on how to deal with the recession. Asked if he thinks American consumers can “buy their way out of the recession,” as President Eisenhower has suggested, Truman replied that “They’ve got to go to work to get out of it.”

Playing at the Palace Theater, “Run Silent, Run Deep,” starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. At the State, the return of “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” Oscar’s best picture of the year.

April 11, 1933: Angered at the refusal of Ohio Edison Co. officials to reduce light rates in Hubbard Township, 400 taxpayers in the township decide after a meeting at the high school, to quit using electric power, except when absolutely necessary.

Sunday bus and trolley passes good for an adult and two children anywhere in the city all day Sunday will be sold for 25 cents.

Youngstown’s new federal building and post office opens at Market and Front Street, across from the Mahoning County Courthouse.