Today is Monday, April 14, the 105th day of 2008. There are 261 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Monday, April 14, the 105th day of 2008. There are 261 days left in the year. On this date in 1865, President Lincoln is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington. (Lincoln dies the following morning.)

In 1775, the first American society for the abolition of slavery is formed in Philadelphia. In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster’s “American Dictionary of the English Language” is published. In 1902, James Cash Penney opens his first store, called The Golden Rule, in Kemmerer, Wyo. In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic collides with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and begins sinking. In 1931, King Alfonso XIII of Spain goes into exile, and the Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed. In 1939, the John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is first published. In 1981, the first test flight of America’s first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ends successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

April 14, 1983: A new firm, Reliable Tube Co., says it will make steel tubing by summer in a former Youngstown Steel Tank Co. plant on Andrews Avenue.

Possible domination of the proposed Mahoning County council by the city of Youngstown is one of the key issues discussed at the first public meeting held to discuss the county charter proposal.

April 14, 1968: The Mayor’s Human Relations Commission is moving quickly to establish community action programs to correct the causes of two days of racial disorders that brought the National Guard to Youngstown.

Rising hopes for peace in Vietnam could give Youngstown’s big industrial plants a business boost in the long term, but in the short term could cause inflation and, without a war, the prospects of a steel strike would increase, writes business editor George Reiss..

A field of 60 cars launches Canfield Speedway’s 23rd auto racing season.

April 14, 1958: For the second time in three decades, a court test of business’s biggest “marriage” — the proposed merger of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and Youngstown Sheet Tube Co. — gets underway in New York City.

Big-city mayors campaigning for the Democratic nomination for governor are attacked by Youngstown’s Clingan Jackson for bragging about their highway financing accomplishments, which Jackson says actually grabbed money from rural and small-city highway projects.

Police Chief Paul Cress suspends Patrolman John Kearney for 30 days for conduct unbecoming an officer for remarks Kearney allegedly made while off duty and in civilian clothes at a downtown tavern. Kearney criticized Cress for recent schedule changes in the department.

April 14, 1933: Relief officials predict that between 400 and 600 unemployed unmarried men and youths in Mahoning County will get jobs in President Roosevelt’s reforestation army.

Shenango Valley steel mill operations will be boosted substantially again, reaching a point practically double the operating schedule that had prevailed through most of the winter. Sharon Tube Co. alone will recall 70 workers.

The state of Pennsylvania joins Ohio in asking Congress and President Roosevelt to include the Beaver-Mahoning canal from the Ohio River to Youngstown in President Roosevelt’s work relief bill.