YEARS AGO

Today is Good Friday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2015. There are 272 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1860: The legendary Pony Express begins carrying mail between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.. (The delivery system lasts only 18 months before giving way to the transcontinental telegraph.)

1865: Union forces occupy the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.

1882: Outlaw Jesse James is shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James’ gang.

1936: Bruno Hauptmann is electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.

1946: Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander held responsible for the Bataan Death March, is executed by firing squad outside Manila.

1948: President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist communism.

1965: The United States launches the SNAP-10A nuclear power system into Earth orbit; it was the first nuclear reactor sent into space.

1968: The day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous “mountaintop” speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.

1974: Deadly tornadoes begin hitting wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; more than 300 fatalities resulted from what became known as the Super Outbreak.

1985: The landmark Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant closes after 56 years in business.

1990: Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan dies in suburban Los Angeles at age 66.

1995: Former United Way of America President William Aramony is convicted in Alexandria, Va. of 25 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering for stealing nearly $600,000 from the charity. (Aramony ended up serving six years of a seven-year prison sentence.)

1996: An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and American business executives crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard.

2005: A day after the death of Pope John Paul II, the body of the pontiff lies in state. Millions pray and weep at services across the globe, as the Vatican prepares for the ritual-filled funeral and conclave that would choose a successor.

2010: The leader of the Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, says in remarks released by the BBC that the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has lost all credibility because of its mishandling of abuse by priests.

White supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche, 68, is bludgeoned to death on his South African farm in a dispute with black farm workers over wages.

Connecticut senior Tina Charles is the runaway choice as The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball player of the year. Nebraska’s Connie Yori is named The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball coach of the year.

2014: The Associated Press reports that the U.S. government had masterminded the creation of a “Cuban Twitter” designed to undermine the communist government in Havana.

Serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells is put to death in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court rejects his lawyers’ demand that the state release information about where it had gotten its lethal injection drug.

David Letterman announces during a taping of the “Late Show” on CBS that he was retiring as host in 2015. (Stephen Colbert was named his replacement a week later).

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall is named the runaway winner of the AP coach of the year award. Creighton star Doug McDermott is a near-unanimous pick as the AP player of the year.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Liberty-based Gasser Chair Co. provides more than 2,000 chairs and stools for billionaire Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City.

Fire levels a Canfield Fairgrounds building that was being used as storage for boats, trailers and camper. The board’s coverage does not cover the contents, and individual owners will have to file for compensation from their own insurance companies.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge William T. Bodoh approves the sale of the Holiday Inn Youngstown and the MetroPlex Centre in Liberty Township for $4 million to W.A.M. Management Inc. of Danbury, Conn.

1975: Sister M. Consolata Kline, H.M., executive director of St. Elizabeth Hospital, is named chairman of the Council of Chief Executive Officers of the associated community hospitals of the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

Youngstown City Council amends the city zoning map to permit construction of Brandywine East, a 144-unit apartment complex in Canfield Road, west of S. Schenley Avenue.

A proposal is introduced in the Ohio General Assembly to allow year-round horse racing in the state as Ohio offers no horse racing between Dec. 9 and Feb. 28, which forces owners to take their horses out of state.

1965: John C. Cox, clerk of the Mahoning County commissioners for 20 years, dies in North Side Hospital. He was a past president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a member of the Army- Navy Garrison 406 and the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen.

Rayen wins its second track meet in a row, defeating East High 85 1.2 to 31 1.2, with Fred Bennett leading Rayen with three firsts.

1940: Mayor Harold H. Burton of Cleveland opens his campaign for the U.S. Senate on a “peace platform” during a crowded Republican rally in East Liverpool.

Painters’ Union Local 476 reaches an agreement with local painters for 1940 at an hourly rate of $1.25, the same rate as that of 1939.

New officers of the Ohio Federation of Temple Sisterhoods are elected at the 20th anniversary convention held at the Hotel Ohio in Youngs-town. Among the officers is Mrs. Lemuel Washburn, first vice president.