Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2014. There are 122 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1886: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastates Charleston, S.C., killing at least 60 people.

1888: Mary Ann Nichols, apparently the first victim of “Jack the Ripper,” is found slain in London’s East End.

1941: The radio program “The Great Gildersleeve,” a spinoff from “Fibber McGee and Molly” starring Harold Peary, debuts on NBC.

1954: Hurricane Carol hits the northeastern Atlantic states; Connecticut, Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts bear the brunt of the storm, which resulted in some 70 deaths.

1972: At the Munich Summer Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz wins his fourth and fifth gold medals in the 100- meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay.

1980: Poland’s Solidarity labor movement is born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.

1986: Seventy-eight people are killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collide over Cerritos, Calif.

The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collides with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink; up to 448 people reportedly die.

1988: Fourteen people are killed when a Delta Boeing 727 crashes during takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

1994: The Irish Republican Army declares a cease-fire.

1997: Prince Charles brings Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of his former wife to a Britain that is shocked, grief-stricken and angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident hours earlier.

2004: At the Republican National Convention in New York, first Lady Laura Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praise President George W. Bush as a man of strength and compassion.

2013: Short of support at home and allies abroad, President Barack Obama steps back from a missile strike against Syria and instead asks Congress to support a strike against President Bashar Assad’s regime for suspected use of chemical weapons.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: A three-person TV crew from Evangelist Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” visits Calvary Christian Academy on Oak Hill Avenue to film a segment for a report Robertson will air on urban education.

General Motors is reportedly considering moving 3,000 Chevrolet and GMC van jobs from the Lordstown complex to a plant in Flint, Mich.

A group of Arby’s franchisees that wants to buy Arby’s Inc. for $200 million from Victor Posner’s DWG Corp. says Posner is dodging the investors’ group.

1974: Daniel Mullett, 23, of the B and D Motel, W. Market St., Warren, is in South Side Hospital with head injuries received when he fell from The Twister ride at the Canfield Fair.

An 18-year-old Campbell man is being held by sheriff’s deputies as a suspect in the shooting of Larry Ray, 18, a recent graduate of Campbell Memorial High School, whose body was found in a field off Overlook Ave.

The Rev. William H. Hudnut Jr., of North Creek, N.Y., and son of the late Rev. William H. Hudnut, will be the guest speaker at the 175th anniversary of First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown.

1964: More than 10,000 people come to the Youngstown Vindicator’s downtown office to buy Sunday Vindicators on the second Sunday of a newspaper strike.

Glen Slane, 47, of Niles, general superintendent of Soda-Lusher Construction Co., is killed in a collision at old U.S. Rt. 21 and Ohio Route 176 near Akron.

1939: Mrs. Catherine Carroll, 59, of Philadelphia Ave., dies of a heart attack in St. Edward’s Church during the funeral of her brother, James Quinn, who died of a heart attack.

Republic Steel Corp.’s huge Youngstown Steel plant wins national recognition as the safest plant in the United States, registering 69 days without a lost-time injury.

Dike Beede’s Youngstown College football team has a new backfield coach, Dom Rosselli, a star aerialist with Geneva College, who will work on the team’s passing game.