Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, April 4, the 95th day of 2012. There are 271 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1841: President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.

1859: “Dixie” is performed publicly for the first time by Bryant’s Minstrels at Mechanics’ Hall in New York.

1912: China proclaims a republic in Tibet, a move fiercely opposed by Tibetans.

1933: The Navy airship USS Akron crashes in severe weather off the New Jersey coast with the loss of 73 lives.

1960: Elvis Presley records “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” in Nashville, Tenn., for RCA Victor.

1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

1991: Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and six other people, including two children, are killed when a helicopter collides with Heinz’s plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pa.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: A winter storm drops nearly a foot of snow on some parts of the Mahoning Valley.

A new facility that can meet all of the needs of a cancer patient in Youngstown is opened as Southside Medical Center’s Cancer Care Center.

1972: Construction will begin soon on Youngstown State University’s $7.5 million Technical and Community College building, but it is expected to take 21/2 years before it is a reality.

National Tea Co., which operates 85 retail supermarkets in the area, reduces its price on meats by 9 percent in an attempt to curb rising costs of farm products.

1962: Liberty police investigate a burglary at the Richard Drive home of notorious burglar Philip “Fleagle” Mainer. Missing are 30 tailor-made suits, each with a “Fleagle” label, a mink stole and jewelry, all valued at $8,000.

The Youngstown Board of Education authorizes a thorough investigation into the possible use of substandard conduit in construction of a Paul C. Bunn School addition.

1937: Youngstown Mayor Lionel and his administration are putting together a program to remake the city through major projects and involvement of fraternal organizations.

A Springfield Township farmer’s wife is conducting her own sit down strike at the home of Trustee Mark Kohler after she was turned down for money needed for a hospital X-ray. Mrs. Anna Prieffer was arrested for trespassing by Constable Ernest Persing.

The Rev. Leo C. Gainor, pastor of St. Dominic Church, is elected president of the high school department of the National Catholic Education Association at its convention in Louisville, Ky.,

Dr. J.F.D. Bowersox, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran congregation, announces that he will resign effective June 1.

The Mellon family closes its $2.5 million fox hunting farm near Pittsburgh after farm hands went on strike and made what the family said were “impossible” demands. The 12,000-acre estate was the scene of the country’s swankiest fox hunting and America’s “Grand National” steeplechase.