YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, April 18, the 108th day of 2015. There are 257 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: Paul Revere begins his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British are coming.

1865: Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.

1906: A devastating earthquake strikes San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.

1925: The first Woman’s World’s Fair, an eight-day event, opens in Chicago.

1934: The first laundromat is opened by John F. Cantrell in Fort Worth, Texas; the “Washateria,” as it is called, rents four electric washing machines to the public on an hourly basis.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: A federal affidavit prepared by Agent Lawrence L. Lynch of the FBI’s Youngstown office names a Howland man and a Lake Milton man as the primary operators of a multimillion-dollar sports bookmaking operation that was run out of a Warren apartment.

After failing to reach an agreement for badly needed capital, GF Corp. files for bankruptcy, a move that could jeopardize benefits for 1,000 employees and leave retirees and suppliers unpaid.

Following a meeting with LTV Corp. officials, Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro proposes a public-private partnership to redevelop the 175 acres of former steel mill property along Poland Avenue in Youngstown.

1975: David Lamb, 30, Austintown, is found shot to death next to his car in a wooded area about 1,000 feet off Villa Maria Road in Pulaski Township, Pa.

The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation will provide $95,000 toward renovation of the nurses’ residence at the Mahoning Tuberculosis Sanatarium as a transitional facility for former mental patients.

Robert D. Lund, General Motors Corp. vice president and general manager of the Chevrolet Division, speaking at the Lordstown GM complex, says “there are many positive indicators of the return of better business in the marketplace today.”

1965: William Mitcheltree of West Middlesex, Pa., is commissioned a second lieutenant at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and sent to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia for pilot training.

Dr. Anthony E. Billett, Youngstown oral surgeon, is accepted for a second two-year assignment on the hospital ship SS HOPE. Drs. John McDonough and Elmer Wenass also have served on the HOPE.

Lingering winter weather and ice on the Great Lakes may cause an iron ore shortage later in the year for Youngstown district steel mills.

1940: The Rev. Samuel J. Purvis, pastor of the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, is the new moderator of the Mahoning Presbytery, succeeding the Rev. Charles Tevis, pastor of Youngstown Foster Memorial Presbyterian church.

A.M. Trainor, a bakery delivery man, foils a daytime hold-up at the Warren Avenue Food Market in Youngstown when he walks in just as two gunmen were escorting two store employees into a back room. “What’s going on here,” Trainor exclaimed, and as the robbers turned, Proprietor Joe Molkoff and clerk William Bochert tackled them. The robbers managed to flee after a scuffle.

Four people are slightly injured when a car driven by Donald Cole. 18, of Warren, collides with an Elm Street bus at Lincoln Avenue and Elm Street near Youngstown College.