Years Ago

Today is Monday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2014. There are 135 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1838: The first marine expedition sponsored by the U.S. government sets sail from Hampton Roads, Va.; the crews travel the southern Pacific Ocean, gathering scientific information.

1846: American forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearny capture Santa Fe, N.M.

1862: Dakota Indians begin an uprising in Minnesota (the revolt was crushed by U.S. forces some six weeks later).

1914: President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I, saying, “The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men’s souls.”

1920: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing all American women the right to vote, is ratified as Tennessee becomes the 36th state to approve it.

1938: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King dedicate the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada.

1954: During the Eisenhower administration, Assistant Secretary of Labor James Ernest Wilkins becomes the first black official to attend a meeting of the president’s Cabinet as he sits in for Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell.

1963: James Meredith becomes the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1969: The Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, N.Y., winds to a close after three nights with a mid-morning set by Jimi Hendrix.

1976: Two U.S. Army officers are killed in Korea’s demilitarized zone as a group of North Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attack U.S. and South Korean soldiers.

1983: Hurricane Alicia slams into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage.

1988: Vice President George H.W. Bush accepts the presidential nomination of his party at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: The Ungaro administration won’t be able to extend Youngstown Municipal Airport Manager Lawrence Diemand’s contract in the future without City Council’s blessing.

Robert Williams Jr., of Bristolville who shot a barmaid after she spurned him and then slit her throat to kill her, files a hand written petition from prison seeking a new trial, saying he has found God in prison. He was sentenced to 18 years to life for killing Debra Blaine.

The Youngstown Diocese has an enrollment of 17,500 students in 54 elementary and six high schools for the 1989-90 school year.

1974: Leo N. Mason, 78, of Kirk Road, a city tennis champion and all-around athlete who once coached the YSU tennis team, dies in South Side Hospital.

The minimum price for haircuts in Youngstown is going up from $3 to $3.50, says N.E. Colla Jr., president of the Greater Youngstown Barbers Local 84.

Sharon Steel Corp. plans a $10 million basic steelmaking facility that will apparently spell the end for Sharon’s $17 million experiment with the Swedish-developed Kal Do basic oxygen furnace, the only one of its kind in the U.S.

1964: Mahoning County Engineer Sam Gould announces installation of a 48-inch storm sewer at county expense to alleviate chronic flooding in parts of Boardman.

The Poland zoning commission rejects a proposed change that would have prohibited stabling a horse within 100 feet of a dwelling, thus saving “Rocky,” a horse owned by Karl Granger of Poland Manor from banishment. A neighbor had complained about Granger, 79, keeping “Rocky” in his garage.

Mrs. Clyde A. Painter, dean of women at Youngstown University, received a doctorate in educational psychology from Colorado State College.

1939: William Davis of Sharpsville, Pa., and William Evans of Sharon, members of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hubbard, file suit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland charging Hubbard Mayor R.C. Bowers and other officials with committing or allowing violence, arrests and assaults against members of the sect.

Attorney Guy T. Ohl, former president of the Youngstown Board of Education, sends a letter to Youngstown clergymen of all denominations asking for their support of his mayoral candidacy.

The Youngstown plant of Truscon Steel Co., a subsidiary of Republic Steel Corp., wins first place among rolling, finishing and fabricating mills in the National Safety Council’s contest.