Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, April 26, the 116th day of 2011. There are 249 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1785: American naturalist, hunter and artist John James Audubon is born in present-day Haiti.

1865: John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, is surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed.

1945: Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, is arrested.

1961: Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits the first of his 61 home runs during a 162-game season (compared to Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs during a 154-game season) as he hits a roundtripper off Paul Foytack at Tiger Stadium.

1986: A major nuclear accident occurs at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) as an explosion and fire causes radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. At least 31 people die fighting the plant fire, but the number of other deaths resulting from the disaster remains in dispute.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: General Motors Corp. goes on the offensive in a battle for buyers, offering financing as low as 5.9 percent, the lowest rate in the company’s history.

Phi Kappa Tau wins the fraternity competition at Greek Sing at Stambaugh Auditorium and Delta Zeta wins top honors among the sororities.

1971: Children playing with matches are believed to have started a fire that destroyed the main building of the Adkins Lumber Co. in East Liverpool, causing $250,000 in damage.

John J. Gilligan makes his first visit to Youngstown since being elected governor and has high praise for two men he chose for his cabinet, J. Phillip Richley, state highway director, and Martin Hughes, director of industrial relations.

1961: Youngstown University’s new nuclear reactor, a first in the Youngstown area, will be ready for instructional purposes by fall, Dr. Howard W. Jones, University president, reports.

“Law in Your Life Week” will open in Mahoning County with naturalization ceremonies for 120 aliens in the Court of Appeals courtroom at the Mahoning County Courthouse.

1936: About 600 men begin working at the Meander Sanitary District property, planting 2.5 million trees surrounding Meander Lake.

Sailing for Paris aboard the Cunard liner S.S. Berengaria are Youngstowners William J. Hitchcock Jr., and Mr. and Mrs. John W. Ford.

The McDonald High School Orchestra is characterized as one of the finest musical organizations in the state and will join Ashland, Dover and Jackson Township in representing Ohio in a national orchestra contest.