Years Ago

Today is Thursday, July 17, the 198th day of 2014. There are 167 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1821: Spain cedes Florida to the United States.

1918: Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks.

1936: The Spanish Civil War begins as right-wing army generals launch a coup attempt against the Second Spanish Republic.

1938: Aviator Douglas Corrigan takes off from New York, saying he is headed for California; he ends up in Ireland, supposedly by accident, earning the nickname “Wrong Way Corrigan.”

1944: During World War II, 320 men, two-thirds of them African-Americans, are killed when a pair of ammunition ships explodes at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California.

1954: The two-day inaugural Newport Jazz Festival, billed as “The First American Jazz Festival,” opens in Rhode Island; among the performers the first night are Billie Holiday, who died in New York on this date in 1959 at age 44.

1955: Disneyland has its opening day in Anaheim, Calif.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Lloyd Haynes sets bonds of $500 for 47 protesters arrested by city police on various charges during a protest at the Mahoning Women’s Center on Market Street.

Nine new members of the Youngstown Fire Department are sworn in by City Councilman James Fortune. They are Gary DiTullio, Mark L. Farragher, Jeffrey Stewart, Brian R. Dothard, John H. Moore, Lisa Caddes, David D. Roch, Patrick J. Romeo and Joseph J. Caraballo.

Glenn H. Meadows, CEO of McNeil Corp., is the new chairman of the board of trustees of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

1974: Youngstown schools Superintendent Robert Pegues proposes an open- transfer program to the Youngstown Board of Education that would allow any student to request transfer to another school offering a course the student wants or to improve racial balance.

The Trumbull County Board of Education recommends that four northern school districts — Bloomfield-Mespo, Farmington, Bristol and Southington — be merged.

Republic Steel Corp. will construct a new coke oven battery at its Warren plant as part of a $160 million capital-improvement program.

1964: Mill Creek Park officials order the closing of 10 more springs and wells in the park because of contamination.

United Appeal-Community Chest-Red Cross sets a goal of $1.6 million, about $226,000 more than was raised in the 1963 campaign.

Edward J. DeBartolo of Youngstown predicts a banner year when Randall Park opens its 44-day racing session.

1939: Gene Isaacs of Struthers, who played end on Western Reserve University’s football team, brings down a thug with a flying tackle on Cromwell Ave. in Cleveland. The thug grabbed Clara Rimer, a nurse at St. Luke’s Hospital, whom Isaacs was waiting to escort home from the hospital.

Contracts will be let for construction of the Free Polish Krakusy Society’s new home at South Avenue and Cameron Street. The total cost is expected to be $51,000.

The Most Rev. Joseph Schrembs, archbishop of Cleveland, gives permission to the Rev. Joseph M. Held, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in East Palestine, to begin the construction of a new $34,000 church.