YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, April 1, the 91st day of 2015. There are 274 days left in the year. This is April Fool’s Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1865: During the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan route Confederate soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. George Pickett in the Battle of Five Forks in Virginia.

1924: Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. (Hitler was released in December 1924; during his time behind bars, he wrote his autobiographical screed, “Mein Kampf.”)

1933: Nazi Germany stages a daylong national boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

1954: The United States Air Force Academy is established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1962:The Katherine Anne Porter novel “Ship of Fools,” an allegory about the rise of Nazism in Germany, is published by Little, Brown & Co. on April Fools’ Day.

1970: President Richard M. Nixon signs a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television, to take effect after Jan. 1, 1971.

1972: The first Major League Baseball players’ strike begins; it lasted 12 days.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The World Basketball League loses one of its affiliates, Worcester, Mass., leaving the league with Youngstown and six other cities.

South Avenue between U.S. 422 and Western Reserve Road in Boardman Township gets the most votes in The Vindicator’s pothole patrol survey that asked readers to identify the worst stretches of road in the area.

Hubbard Township trustees rescind a gag order that restricted topics on which residents could comment during trustee meetings, but say they will expect citizens to avoiding screaming and cursing, regardless of the topic.

1975: Crawford County Judge P. Richard Thomas dismisses a murder indictment against James Wardrop of Youngstown in the gangland-style slaying of Philip Cownden, also of Youngstown, saying Wardrop had been given immunity for his testimony about organized crime before the Pennsylvania Crime Commission.

Youngstown’s serious crime rate increased 9.6 percent in 1974, while the national average was up 17 percent.

Youngstown police are among a number of Northern Ohio departments put on the alert for a Buick Electra that was spotted in Kentucky containing two women, one of whom resembled the fugitive Parry Hearst.

1965: Carol Jean Barnhart of Canfield is elected to represent the Eastern Ohio Student Nurses Association in competition for “Ohio Nurse of the Year.”

The latest demand from the steelworkers’ union negotiating team is an increase in wages and benefits that amount to $1 per hour over the next three years. R. Conrad Cooper, chief company negotiator, calls the proposal “preposterous.”

Ann Landers, popular Vindicator columnist, will speak at the Youngstown Junior League’s Town Hall Lecture Series.

1940: A large warehouse for storing steel will be constructed at a cost of $150,000 by the General Fireproofing Co. at its Logan Ave. plant.

Strouss-Hirshberg’s 65th anniversary banquet attracts 850 people to the downtown YMCA, the largest crowd ever fed at the Y. Tables filled the large gymnasium and the circular balcony.

Frank Hardesty, subregional director of the Steel Workers Organization Committee, tells 700 steelworkers in Massillon that as many as 100,0000 workers may lose their jobs because of technological advancement in the steel industry.