Years Ago

Today is Thursday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2014. There are 223 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1761: The first American life insurance policy is issued in Philadelphia to a Rev. Francis Allison, whose premium was six pounds per year.

1860: The United States and Japan exchange ratifications of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce during a ceremony in Washington.

1913: The American Cancer Society is founded in New York under its original name, the American Society for the Control of Cancer.

1939: The foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, sign a “Pact of Steel” committing the two countries to a military alliance.

1947: The Truman Doctrine is enacted as Congress appropriates military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.

1960: An earthquake of magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever measured, strikes southern Chile, claiming some 1,655 lives.

1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the University of Michigan, outlines the goals of his “Great Society,” saying that it “rests on abundance and liberty for all” and “demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.”

1968: The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, sinks in the Atlantic Ocean. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)

1969: The lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flies to within 9 miles of the moon’s surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1972: President Richard Nixon begins a visit to the Soviet Union, during which he and Kremlin leaders sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Dr. Colin Campbell, provost and dean at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, says NEOUCOM’s six-year B.S.-M.D. program costs less and gives doctors two additional years in their professional lives.

Warren City Council is considering a repeal of its 23-year-old ordinance banning ice cream sales along city streets.

The Youngstown Police Department Chaplaincy Corps and city officials will hold weekly community prayer meetings to defuse the threat that violent crime poses to society.

1974: The Brookfield Federation of Teachers ratifies a new agreement with the Brookfield Board of Education, ending a six-day strike and allowing 2,200 pupils to return to classes.

Hickory Township voters approve a proposed Home Rule Charter for the township by a vote of 2 to 1.

Terrence D. Taylor, vice president of the Mahoning National Bank, will head the Bank Administration Institute’s Youngstown Chapter.

1964: Six known police figures, including “Fats” Aiello, are subpoenaed to testify before the Mahoning County grand jury investigating racketeering.

Members of the junior class at Cardinal Mooney High School are making themselves available to household chores for a week with proceeds going to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library Fund.

Richard P. “Dick” Hartzell of Struthers, a June graduate of Youngstown University, receives a graduate assistantship in physical education at Ohio State University.

1939: A spectacular $25,000 fire destroys the Myers Laundry and Dry Cleaning plant on Market Street. The blaze attracted such large crowds that firemen were hampered in fighting the fire.

Frank W. Mourey, prominent local merchant, says adoption of daylight saving time by Youngstown would be of great benefit to office and store workers, especially those who work late afternoon hours.

More than 500 Roumanians join an all-day celebration of the silver anniversary of the Rev. John Spatariu as a priest and the 30th annual of St. Mary Roumanian Orthodox Church, of which he was pastor.