Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, June 24, the 175th day of 2014. There are 190 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1314: The forces of Scotland’s Robert the Bruce defeat the English in the Battle of Bannockburn.

1509: Henry VIII is crowned king of England; his wife, Catherine of Aragon, is crowned queen consort.

1793: The first republican constitution in France is adopted.

1880: “O Canada,” the future Canadian national anthem, is first performed in Quebec City.

1908: The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, dies in Princeton, N.J., at age 71.

1940: France signs an armistice with Italy during World War II.

1948: Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the western Allies to organize the Berlin Airlift.

1964: AT&T inaugurates commercial “Picturephone” service between New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as Lady Bird Johnson, wife of the president, calls Dr. Elizabeth A. Wood of Bell Laboratories in New York. (Requiring the use of video booths, with a 3-minute call from Washington to New York costing $16, and a $27 charge for a 3-minute call between New York and Chicago, Picturephone never caught on.)

1968: “Resurrection City,” a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C., is closed down by authorities.

1975: One hundred thirteen people are killed when an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashes while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

1983: The space shuttle Challenger — carrying America’s first woman in space, Sally K. Ride — coasts to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1993: David Gelernter, a Yale University computer scientist, is seriously injured by a mail bomb sent from the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski.

2004: Federal investigators question President George W. Bush for more than an hour in connection with the news leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

2009: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair, and said he would resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Safe and Sane Fireworks Association of Lisbon, a lobbying group, files a lawsuit claiming that the state has allowed seven fireworks wholesalers in the state to open in buildings that do not meet state regulations.

A Mass of Thanksgiving is planned at Holy Name Church in honor of the Rev. George M. Franko, who is retiring after 33 years of service to the parish, 21 as pastor.

Tamron Smith, South High standout who is headed for Youngstown State, leads the White squad to a 30-6 victory over the Red in the fifth annual McDonald’s Mahoning Valley Coaches Association All-Star Football Classic. He runs the last 30 yards of his second touchdown in one shoe after losing the other.

1974: Referee Oliver Schroeder, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, recommends to the Ohio Board of Education that some 250 children in Coitsville Township be transferred from the Youngstown School District to the Campbell School District.

Roth Brothers Cooling and Heating Inc. buys International Paper Co.’s former milk carton plant at 3847 Crum Road.

Joseph Delano McKay, 37, an English teacher and basketball coach at Howland High School, receives his doctor of philosophy degree with honors from the University of Akron.

1964: Thieves looting an emergency equipment truck stolen from the Ellsworth Township Fire Station are surprised in an isolated wooded area on Leffingwell Road, but escape. The truck contained skin diving equipment, coats, boots and two radios.

Liberty Township faces a dangerous lack of water pressure in many sections, and trustees say the financially distressed township doesn’t have the money to address the problem.

Playing at the Warner Theater: “The Masque of the Red Death,” starring Vincent Price in Edgar Allen Poe’s masterpiece of the macabre.

1939: Atty. John Q.T. Ford of Warren, a graduate of Georgetown College and Harvard Law School, joins the Youngstown College law school faculty.

The Charleston, W. Va., Senators win their series opener with the Youngstown Browns, 5-2, holding the faltering Youngstown nine to just four hits.

Mrs. C.E. Yacoll captures the inaugural women’s golf tournament at Mill Creek, leading a field of nine players with a gross score of 58.