Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, April 24, the 114th day of 2013. There are 251 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1800: Congress approves a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

1898: Spain declares war on the United States. (The United States responds in kind the next day.)

1913: The 792-foot Woolworth Building, at that time the tallest skyscraper in the world, officially opens in Manhattan.

1953: British statesman Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1962: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieves the first satellite relay of a television signal, using NASA’s Echo 1 balloon satellite to bounce a video image from Camp Parks, Calif., to Westford, Mass.

1963: The Boston Celtics win the NBA Finals in Game 6, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 112-109.

1970: The People’s Republic of China launches its first satellite, which keeps transmitting a song, “The East is Red.”

1980: The United States launches an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that results in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

1993: Former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo dies in Johannesburg, South Africa, at age 75.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: General Motors says an expected rush on Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbirds brings a step-up in production and the recall of about 100 of the 500 employees who have been laid off for almost a year.

The Mahoning Valley Economic Development Agency is attempting to broker a deal between Youngstown city officials and Trumbull County officials to save the proposed $7 million Petro truck plaza in Weathersfield Township.

Samuel A. Roth, president of Roth Bros. Inc., receives the City of Hope Spirit of Life Award during a dinner at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman. Entertainer Fred Willard is the speaker.

All of the 14 Youngstown Pride players in pre-season camp are certified in accord with the height requirements of the World Basketball League, which requires that a player be under 6-foot-5 to play.

1973: The Mahoning County Tuberculosis Sanatorium board agrees to recommend to Mahoning County commissioners that the tuberculosis sanitorium be closed with local hospitals resuming treatment of TB patients.

Students at Rayen School will be given TB skin tests after one student is diagnosed with moderately active tuberculosis says Dr. John Bleacher, physician for the Youngstown Board of Education.

Francis J. Buckley, Boardman fireman, is awarded the highest award Red Cross can bestow, the National Red Cross Certificate of Merit, by the Mahoning County chapter for saving the life of Barbara Huffman of Columbiana who had been critically injured in a traffic accident.

1963: Linda Bruno, a junior at Chaney High School, joins other American Legion essay winners from Ohio, in a visit to the Capitol and a meeting with members of the Ohio delegation.

The Seventh District Court of Appeals rules that Youngstown’s rezoning of a parcel near Cornersburg for the $1 million Kirkmere Plaza was invalid.

Steve Patrick, 48, and his son, Steve, 21, of Vienna and 75-year-old Lewis S. Jones of Wheatland, Pa., are among 25 people honored in Pittsburgh by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for acts of valor during 1962.

1938: Bishop J. Lester Smith of Cincinnati names the Rev. Paul E. Secrest, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in East Liverpool, to be superintendent of the Youngstown Methodist district.

An estimated 80,000 spectators crowd into downtown Youngstown for its biggest parade ever, the Northwest Territory Caravan, marking the 150th anniversary of the opening of the territory

Four Youngstown College juniors vie for Prom Queen, Marion Parmenter, Helen Gifford, Rose Rosapepe and Katherine Jones.

The Mahoning County Young Men’s Democratic Club refuses to endorse Gov. Martin L. Davey for a third term by an 18-1 vote.