Years Ago

Today is Friday, May 31, the 151st day of 2013. There are 214 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1859: The Big Ben clock tower in London goes into operation, chiming for the first time.

1889: More than 2,000 people perish when a dam break sends water rushing through Johnstown, Pa.

1913: U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan proclaims the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of U.S. senators, to be in effect.

1962: Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel a few minutes before midnight for his role in the Holocaust.

1985: At least 88 people —including 25 in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys — are killed, more than 1,000 injured, as more than 40 tornadoes sweep through parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, Canada, during an 8-hour period.

Vindicator files

1988: A 22-month-old girl, Connie Ann Cobb, dies in a fire that gutted a two-story concrete apartment on Delmer Avenue in Campbell.

Bishop James W. Malone of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese applauds Pope John Paul II’s selection of Archbishop Edmond Szoka of Detroit and Archbishop[ James Hickey of Washington, D.C., as new cardinals.

1973: When the last piece of new equipment is installed at the Farmer’s Swiss Cheese Co-op in New Wilmington, Pa., it will be the largest and most modern swiss cheese production plant in the world, says cheese maker Jack Marti.

Atty. William A. Sullivan Jr. of Warren is elected chairman of the Citizen’s Action Council of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in Columbus.

The Youngstown Board of Education tables a resolution that would require new employees of the city school district to live in the city or agree to move into the city within 90 days.

Phillip Gandon, executive director of Goodwill in London, Ontario, is named to succeed Henry E. “Pete” Johnson as director of Christ Mission Goodwill Industries in Youngstown.

1963: The body of Wayne Thomas Valentine, a 22-year-old Youngstown soldier missing since May 11, is found floating in the Puget Sound, Washington, where his ship, the USS Wright was berthed when he disappeared.

The top scholar in the 1963 graduating class of Kent State University is Lois Wilson, a Boardman High School graduate who plans to teach at a mission school in Africa.

Unofficial estimates place the crowd at downtown Youngstown for the Memorial Day parade at 17,000 people.

1938: Two bandits hold up two officers of the Eagles Club at Rayen and Fifth Avenues escaping with between $1,200 and $1,400, most of which came from recently collected dues.

Four Youngstown police officers raid the American Bank headquarters at 736 Mahoning Avenue, seizing betting slips and books and making one arrest in a continuing crackdown on the numbers racket.

Sheriff Ralph Elser and 15 deputies put an abrupt end to betting at the Milton Kennel Club dog races at Craig Beach when they show up at the fourth race.