Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, April 7, the 97th day of 2010. There are 268 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1945: U.S. aircraft carrier planes sink Japan’s largest battleship, the Yamato, in World War II.

1957: New York City’s last electric trolley completes its final run from Queens to Manhattan.

1961: Milovan Djilas, former Number Two man of Tito regime in Yugoslavia, is arrested.

1969: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

1974: Major oil producing countries meeting in Geneva decide to set up a fund for developing nations hit hard by higher petroleum prices.

1987: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces that American diplomats will not occupy the new embassy in Moscow until he is sure that it is secure from Soviet eavesdropping.

1988: Iran and Iraq bomb each other’s capitals and other towns, killing and wounding scores of people.

1990: Former U.S. national security adviser John Poindexter is convicted of conspiracy, obstruction and lying in Iran-Contra scandal.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Atty. Avetis Darvanan, chairman of the Youngstown Civil Service Commission, says city council should abolish Youngstown’s residency requirement for municipal employees because it is not being enforced.

Four Youngstowners convicted on drug charges are suing the Mahoning County Board of Elections, the Ohio Secretary of State and former county Prosecutor Vince Gilmartin to regain their voting rights.

1970: Gerald Miner, president of the Black Students Association, tells the Youngstown Board of Eduction that some teachers allow students to play cards rather than demand academic performance and counselors are lax in helping students get scholarships.

A 16-year-old LaClede Avenue youth is acquitted of charges of assault on a Canfield doctor and Youngstown businessman after a basketball game at South High Fieldhouse. Neither could identify him as one of their attackers.

1960: About $325 in cash and $2,500 in nonnegotiable checks are taken by burglars who cracked a safe at the Niles Daily times office on S. State Street.

1935: Youngstown real estate agents say the home market is the best since 1929. The number of real-estate-for-sale ads in Vindicator classified in March was four times that of March two years earlier.

The Vahey-Marsh-Woods Co. at Front and Phelps streets is appointed the downtown Youngstown dealer for Ford cars and trucks. There are four direct and three associate dealers marketing Fords in Youngstown.