YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, April 17, the 107th day of 2015. There are 258 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1492: A contract is signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.

1905: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Lochner v. New York, strikes down, 5-4, a New York State law limiting the number of hours that bakers could be made to work. (This ruling was effectively overturned in 1937 by the high court’s West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish decision.)

1924: The motion picture studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is founded, the result of a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Co.

1937: Daffy Duck debuts in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon “Porky’s Duck Hunt,” directed by Tex Avery.

1941: Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany during World War II.

1961: Some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launch the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crush the incursion by the third day.

The Virginia State Convention votes to secede from the Union.

1964: Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock becomes the first woman to complete a solo airplane trip around the world as she returns to Columbus, Ohio, after 291/2 days in her Cessna 180.

Ford Motor Co. unveils the Mustang at the New York World’s Fair.

The first game is played at New York’s Shea Stadium; the Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Mets, 4-3.

1970: Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splash down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon.

1975: Cambodia’s five-year war ends as the capital Phnom Penh falls to the Khmer Rouge. (It instituted brutal, radical policies that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives until the regime was overthrown in 1979.)

1984: An 11-day police siege begins at Libya’s embassy in London when an unidentified shooter inside the building fires on a crowd of protesters, killing police officer Yvonne Fletcher. (The Libyans in the embassy were eventually allowed to leave the country as Britain and Libya severed relations.)

1990: The Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, civil rights activist and top aide to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., dies in Atlanta at age 64.

1993: A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers are acquitted.

Turkish President Turgut Ozal dies at age 66.

vindicator FILES

1990: About 125 South Avenue merchants attend a rally at the closed South Avenue Bridge demanding action by Mahoning County commissioners, who ordered the bridge closed 51 month earlier.

Four parcels totaling 149 acres along state Route 11 will continue to be marketed as residential property after Cortland Council rejects a request for rezoning from residential to industrial.

Although several labor-related issues remain unsettled, the Peter J. Schmitt Co. begins stocking goods in its new $35 million North Jackson warehouse, which is supposed to open June 1.

1975: The first of Chevrolet’s new high-performance Cosworth Vegas roll off the assembly line at Lordstown. The state-of-the-art, all-aluminum engine has 16 valves, an on-board computer and produces 120 horsepower.

The new president-elect of Rotary International, Atty. Robert A. Manchester of Canfield, is honored by the Downtown Rotary Club and the city of Youngstown at the Hotel Ohio.

Five Youngstown State University coeds are vying for Military Ball queen: Francine Worrellia, Michele Murphy, Delores Bosak, Joan Dascenzo and Karen McClendon.

1965: Mrs. Dan B. Jones Jr. tells 108 members of the Garden Forum of Greater Youngstown the season’s future plans, which include planting trees in Mill Creek Park in honor of two past presidents, and building a workshop for wren houses.

Ralph Colla Jr., exceptionally successful teenage golfer from Cardinal Mooney High, prepares for a busy summer as he hopes to qualify for the National Open at Squaw Creek in May.

Fourteen applications are received in Columbus for the job of Mahoning County Welfare director left vacant by the resignation of I.L. Feuer.

1940: WPA officials announce a slash of 451 workers from the Mahoning County rolls.

The Cleveland Indians Bob Feller pitches an opening day no-hitter as the Indians beat the White Sox in Chicago, 1-0.

Adolph I. Boehme, chairman of the Youngstown Parks and Recreation Commission, says an attempt to extend Fifth Avenue beyond Gypsy Lane is “against the wishes and best interests of the citizens of Youngstown.” Boehme says the owners of property north of the municipal golf course are behind efforts to cut a road through the course.