Years Ago

Today is Sunday, April 11, the 101st day of 2010. There are 264 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1898: As tensions with Spain continue to rise, President William McKinley asks Congress to authorize military intervention in Cuba.

1899: The treaty ending the Spanish-American War is declared in effect.

1921: Iowa is the first state to impose a cigarette tax, at 2 cents a package.

1945: During World War II, American soldiers liberate the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany.

1951: President Harry S. Truman relieves Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East.

1979: Idi Amin is deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seize control.

2001: Ending a tense 11-day standoff, China agrees to free the 24 crew members of an American spy plane.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: The New Castle Saturn Task Force says Pennsylvania is still very much in the running for the new General Motors division plant.

William B. Coulter, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, says public colleges and universities should compete for funding, which would produce a stronger higher education system and a foundation on which to build economic development.

1970: The State Board of Education approves $3.4 million in matching funds for construction of the Mahoning County Joint Vocational School.

Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by Mrs. Blossie Gibson is credited with saving the lives of her grandchildren, Valerie Cash, 6, and Vernon, 5, who were overcome by fumes from a defective muffler in a recently purchased used car. Youngstown Patrolman Michael Terlesky saw the grandmother and mother, Mrs. Oralee Cash, administering to the children at a red light on Champion Street and gave assistance, rushing them to the hospital, where they were given oxygen.

1960: Three Youngstown high school students win top honors in the Northern Ohio National Forensic Student Congress finals in Cleveland. They are Richard Solyn of Rayen School, Mary Alice Leuschner of Chaney High School and Robert Joyce of Ursuline High School.

Ed DiGregorio of East High School and Dan Modak of Hubbard High are honored as basketball “Coach of the Year” by the Mahoning Valley association.

Six Youngstown churches were ransacked on Palm Sunday afternoon by a thief who apparently followed Route 62 from Zion Lutheran Church on Canfield Road to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Wick Avenue, getting small change at most of the churches and $34 at St. John’s

1935: Col. Evan Watkins, the colorful little orator whose booming voice held thousands spellbound in the Mahoning Valley during the tempestuous rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan in 1923 and 1924, dies in the Chelsey Hotel, New York City, of pneumonia. He was 70.

Councilman Wesley J. Dodson, whose daughter was arrested in a police sweep of a “bug” house on Penn Avenue, demands to know why Police Chief Leroy Goodwin and his vice cops are not arresting the “big boys” in the numbers racket.