YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, April 8, the 98th day of 2015. There are 267 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1820: The Venus de Milo statue is discovered by a farmer on the Greek island of Milos.

1864: The United States Senate passes, 38-6, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. (The House of Representatives passed it in January 1865; the amendment was ratified and adopted in December 1865.)

1913: The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for popular election of United States senators (as opposed to appointment by state legislatures), is ratified.

President Woodrow Wilson becomes the first chief executive since John Adams to address Congress in person as he asks lawmakers to enact tariff reform.

1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which provides money for job-creation programs such as the Works Progress Administration.

1946: The League of Nations assembles in Geneva for its final session.

1952: President Harry S. Truman seizes the American steel industry to avert a nationwide strike. (The Supreme Court later ruled that Truman had overstepped his authority, opening the way for a seven-week strike by steelworkers.)

1961: A suspected bomb explodes aboard the passenger liner MV Dara in the Persian Gulf, causing it to sink; 238 of the 819 people aboard are killed.

1974: Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth’s record.

1975: “The Godfather Part II” wins the Academy Award for best picture; Ellen Burstyn wins best actress for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” while Art Carney receives best actor for “Harry and Tonto.”

1981: General of the Army Omar N. Bradley dies in New York at age 88.

1990: Ryan White, the teenage AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance had gained national attention, dies in Indianapolis at age 18.

The cult TV series “Twin Peaks” premieres on ABC.

1994: Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge band Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27.

2005 : With presidents and kings looking on, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square sing, applaud and chant for the Catholic Church to declare John Paul II a saint as the pope is laid to rest.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Edward Myers, a 10-year-old student at Tod Woods Intermediate School in Girard, wins the 57th annual Vindicator spelling bee after 10 rounds.

Alvin Weisberg, director of Jewish Family and Children Services on Gypsy Lane, says 51 Soviet Jews have immigrated to the Youngstown area since May 1989, and an additional 30 are expected by June.

Named to the 1990 All-City boys basketball team: Lavance Turnage, Booker Newberry, Trelayne Edwards, Levon Lamb and Anthony Patrone. Members of the girls’ team are Sue Smades, Kareem Ash, Sharon Buckner, Claudia Harris and Jennifer Flood.

1975: Shopping mall developer Edward J. DeBartolo denies an Akron Beacon Journal story that he attempted to give $25,000 to the campaign of ex-Gov. John J. Gilligan.

The Seventh District Court of Appeals orders the state Board of Education to recompute state foundation funds distributed to Canfield Local School District, which will result in a $70,000 increase in what the district receives.

Leonard G. Yurcho, who was fired as a painter at the Youngstown Wastewater Treatment Plant for political activity, files suit against the city and its Civil Service Commission claiming that the state law under which he was fired is unconstitutional.

1965: United Air Lines’ J.T. Haley, maintenance director, conducts two workshops at Youngstown Municipal Airport for UAL ground crews in refueling and light servicing of the Boeing 727.

Boardman basketball assistant Al Burns is a speaker for the 11th annual Baldwin Wallace College coaches clinic.

1940: Two Youngstown councilmen say a draft of an agreement between the city and the St. Louis Browns for construction of a municipal baseball stadium is ready to be presented to city council.

A dynamite blast blows a hole in the front of a new gasoline service station under construction at W. Market Street and Cherry Avenue in Warren.

Hundreds of people returning from church service see Serafino Zinni, a 44-year-old shoe repairman, jump from the Market Street Bridge and drown in the Mahoning River. Friends said he was despondent over finances.