YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, April 16, the 106th day of 2015. There are 259 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1879: Bernadette Soubirous, who has described seeing visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, dies in Nevers, France.

1889: Comedian and movie director Charles Chaplin is born in London.

1912: American aviator Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel, leaving Dover, England, and arriving near Calais, France, in 59 minutes.

1935: The radio comedy program “Fibber McGee and Molly” premieres on NBC’s Blue Network.

1940: Major League Baseball’s first (and, to date, only) opening day no-hitter took place as Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians pitches a no-no against the Chicago White Sox, 1-0, at Comiskey Park.

1945: During World War II, a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea torpedoes and sinks the MV Goya, which Germany was using to transport civilian refugees and wounded soldiers; it’s estimated that up to 7,000 people died. U.S. troops reached Nuremberg.

In his first speech to Congress, President Harry S. Truman pledges to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1947: The French ship Grandcamp blows up at the harbor in Texas City, Texas; another ship, the High Flyer, explodes the following day (the blasts and fires killed nearly 600 people).

Financier Bernard M. Baruch says in a speech at the South Carolina statehouse, “Let us not be deceived — we are today in the midst of a cold war.”

1963: Martin Luther King Jr. writes his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which he says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

1986: Dispelling rumors he was dead, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appears on television to condemn the U.S. raid on his country and to say that Libyans are “ready to die” defending their nation.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Mahoning County Treasurer George M. McKelvey lashes out at the Ohio Department of Taxation, saying it allowed a cement corporation and a reputed mobster to avoid paying taxes for years before taking action to collect.

State Rep. Robert F. Hagan, D-53rd, says he is not satisfied with Warner Cable of Youngstown’s explanation for a recent rate hike and believes the time has come to make cable TV answerable to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

About 35 residents of Lordstown Village are evacuated from their homes on Pleasant Valley Drive after fire breaks out at a gas well site.

1975: Youngstown’s Republican mayor, Jack C. Hunter, goes to Washington, D.C., to speak before the U. S. House of Representatives and urge passage of the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1975. He notes that about 26,000 workers are unemployed in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Sharon Mayor Basil C. Scott announces his immediate resignation, citing only “personal reasons.”

The 7th District Court of Appeals rules that a Youngstown Civil Service requirement that city employees must reside in the city is valid only for employees hired after adoption of the requirement on Jan. 20, 1972.

1965: Canfield Speedway’s stock car racing season begins. Among the local racers, Mason Heister, Bob James, Russ Gurd, Emmett Richard, Tommy Jarrett, Junior Postelwait and Bob Baird have Fords; Chuck Jones has a 1958 Studebaker, and Dick Lantz and Jim Bickerstaff have Chevrolets.

Forty voices from combined choirs from North Lima Calvary, New Waterford Methodist and Trinity Evangelical United Brethren churches present the Easter Cantata, “No Greater Love,” at New Springfield Trinity Church.

Facing a May 1 strike deadline from the United Steelworkers, Youngs-town district mills are maintaining operations at 81 percent of capacity, with 15 blast furnaces, 53 open hearths, 10 electric furnaces and one basic oxygen furnace operating.

1940: A total of 87,021 citizens in Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers are registered to vote in the May primary elections, says Byron Wade, clerk of the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

Louis N. McDonald, dean of Youngstown district steel executives, is stepping down as general superintendent of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp.’s Youngstown plants.

A brazen thief grabs about $500 from one of the dice tables and runs out of the Jungle Inn, Trumbull County gambling resort, while many patrons were distracted by the numbers being called in the final keno game of the night.