YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, May 25, the 145th day of 2013. There are 220 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1787: The Constitutional Convention begins at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

1895: playwright Oscar Wilde is convicted of a morals charge in London; he’s sentenced to two years in prison.

1935: Babe Ruth hits the 714th and final home run of his career for the Boston Braves in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1963: The Organisation of African Unity is founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (The OAU was disbanded in 2002 in favor of the African Union.)

1968: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

1979: 273 people die when an American Airlines DC-10 crashes just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

1981: Daredevil Dan Goodwin, wearing a Spiderman costume, scales the outside of Chicago’s Sears Tower in 71/2 hours.

1986: An estimated 7 million Americans participate in “Hands Across America” to raise money for the nation’s hungry and homeless.

Vindcator files

1988: Members of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. hold their first meeting, at which they discuss immediate plans for development of the former Higbee Building and longer range plans for downtown redevelopment.

Ohio Senate Majority Leader Harry Meshel of Youngstown meets with the selection panel for a $39-million state prison, making the case for a Youngstown site.

Youngstown police charge two men and a woman in the beating death of William L. Sincel, 29, whose body was found in a lot on Elberen Street.

1973: Youngstown’s major department stores announce that they will be open form 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Memorial Day. The downtown parade is scheduled to step out at 10 a.m. Twenty-one stores will be open at the Southern Park Mall and 74 at the Eastwood Mall on the holiday.

Ohio Highway Patrol troopers, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department and all local police say they will be out in full force for the 78-hour holiday weekend.

Members of the Mahoning County Chapter of the Ohio State University Alumni Association help OSU President Harold L. Enarson celebrate his 54th birthday after he addressed the group at the Squaw Creek Country Club.

1963: “The demand for educated talent is greater than ever,” John P. Gillespie, dean of men at Youngstown University, tells the city’s 16 valedictorians who were honored by the Downtown Kiwanis Club.

Some 150 property owners in the path of the proposed Madison Avenue Expressway are told during a meeting at Wick Park that construction bids will be let in 1964. Councilman David O’Neil warns against selling to speculators who are hoping to resell the land to the state at inflated prices.

Mayor Harry Savasten orders all city department heads to submit a five-year capital improvement plan to the city planning commission before July 1.

1938: Mayor Lionel Evans orders Police Chief Carl L. Olson to clean up bug operations and prostitution in Youngstown or face a drastic police shake-up.

A United Airlines “ Douglas “Main Liner” en route from Newark , N.J., to Los Angeles, crashes in a ball of flame Independence near Cleveland, killing eight passengers and a crew of three.

Frank Purnell, president of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., is elected to the board of trustees of the YMCA at its annual meeting.