Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, March 18, the 77th day of 2014. There are 288 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1766: Britain repeals the Stamp Act of 1765.

1837: The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, is born in Caldwell, N.J.

1913: King George I of Greece is assassinated in Thessaloniki.

1937: Some 300 people, mostly children, are killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas.

1938: Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas nationalizes his country’s petroleum reserves and takes control of foreign-owned oil facilities.

1940: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agrees to join Germany’s war against France and Britain.

1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Hawaii statehood bill. (Hawaii becomes a state on Aug. 21, 1959.)

1962: France and Algerian rebels sign the Evian Accords, a cease-fire agreement which takes effect the next day, ending the Algerian War.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Nine people apply with the Ohio Department of Highway Safety for the five deputy registrars that will be operating in Mahoning County under a state reorganization plan.

A former employee of Vienna Health Products, a Sharon manufacturer of weightlifting equipment, pleads guilty to dumping hazardous waste — containers of lacquer thinner — in a field in Slippery Rock Township in 1987.

Wick Park on Youngs-town’s North Side marks the 100th anniversary of the deeding of the 34-acre park to the city of Youngstown.

1974: The Rev. Eugene Cooper Bay, pastor of Norwood Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, accepts a call to become pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Youngstown.

Tim Joyce, Ursuline’s most prolific scorer with 30 points a game, is named to the Associated Press Class AAA All-Ohio Basketball first team.

1964: General Motors announces that it will construct a long-awaited automobile assembly plant at Lordstown as part of a $2 billion expansion plan. The district expects 8,000 new jobs.

Congressman Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown receives the outstanding citizen award of the District of Columbia Chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Washington, D.C.

1939: Angeline Maravola, pretty 22-year-old Hillsville servant girl, is free after a Lawrence County jury acquits her on a charge of murdering Michael Rich Jr., son of her wealthy employer. Her lawyer argued that she shot in self-defense during an argument over his refusal to keep a promise of marriage.

Dr. Arthur H. Compton, University of Chicago physicist and Nobel prize winner, who was offered the presidency of Ohio State University at a salary of $15,000 a year, turns down the job.