Years Ago

Today is Friday, April 15, the 105th day of 2011. There are 260 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1817: The first permanent American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Conn.

1861: Following the Confederate takeover of Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln declares a state of insurrection and calls out Union troops.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln dies, nine hours after being shot the night before by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington. Andrew Johnson becomes the nation’s 17th president.

1912: The British luxury liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg; some 1,500 people die.

1945: During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberate the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

1947: Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first black major league player, makes his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. (The Dodgers defeat the Boston Braves, 5-3.)

1960: A three-day conference to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) begins at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. (The group’s first chairman is Marion Barry.)

1986: The United States launches an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya says 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Residents of Columbiana County polled by U.S. Rep. Douglas Applegate, D-18th, say they are opposed to President Reagan’s request for $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan rebels by a margin of 2-1.

Production employees at General Electric Co.’s Ohio Lamp Plant in Warren walk off the job for one day in a protest over unresolved grievances.

1971: Mahoning County Prosecutor Vincent E. Gilmartin sends a notice to the owner of the building housing the post office in Poland threatening foreclosure proceedings if $8,528 in real estate taxes are not paid in 15 days.

The Mahoning County Legal Assistance Association receives funding for at least another year from the Office of Economic Opportunity.

Two Youngstown area high school seniors are among the 1,300 named winners of four-year Merit Scholarships: William Croasmun of Boardman, Nancy King of Liberty.

1961: Mayor Frank R. Franko fires Leo Battisti from his $8,000 a year job as director of land acquisition, so the mayor could give the job to a former airport manager who has been a staunch Franko supporter.

Atty. Joseph O’Neill, candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor, says smaller cities, including Ellwood City, Pa., and Wheeling, W. Va., are successfully facing the challenges of being one-business cities and are making a comeback, but all that has been done in Youngstown is 100 people have been added to the public payroll.

1936: One of Niles largest plants, the Niles Steel Products Co., will be acquired by Republic Steel Corp.

Dr. William Writt, 44, a Farrell doctor, remains in critical condition in Buhl Hospital in Sharon after being slugged by an angry man after refusing to sign a statement saying the man’s daughter died from improper treatment by an unlicensed woman practitioner.