YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, April 19, the 109th day of 2015. There are 256 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: The American Revolutionary War begins with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

1865: A funeral takes place at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln, assassinated five days earlier; his coffin is then taken to the U.S. Capitol for a private memorial service.

1912: A special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee opens hearings in New York into the Titanic disaster.

1935: The Universal Pictures horror film “Bride of Frankenstein,” starring Boris Karloff with Elsa Lanchester in the title role, has its world premiere in San Francisco.

1943: During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto begin a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces.

1951: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Harry S. Truman, bids farewell in an address to Congress in which he quotes a line from a ballad: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

1965: New York City radio station WINS-AM launches its all-news format, which continues to this day, making it America’s oldest all-news broadcaster.

1993: The 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends as fire destroys the structure after federal agents begin smashing their way in; dozens of people, including sect leader David Koresh, are killed.

1995: A truck bomb destroys the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Bomber Timothy McVeigh is later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)

2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany is elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he takes the name Benedict XVI.

General Motors reports a $1.1 billion quarterly loss.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Several Lordstown residents mount an effort to block a zone change that would allow construction of a proposed $3 million vitamin plant by Nature’s Bounty Inc.

A hearing is scheduled in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on a request by GF Corp. to borrow $5 million to resume operations at its idled plants in Chicago and Gallatin, Tenn.

Four Youngstown State University track members are taking part in the All-Ohio Championships at Ohio University: brothers Keith, Kevin and Brian Gorby and Eric Huth.

1975: John Saunders, 24, of Emerson Place is killed and another man injured when someone fires shots outside the Go Go Lounge at Madison Avenue and Foster Street.

A homemade pipe bomb explodes, severely injuring the hands of Raymond Holloway, 15, in the basement of the family’s Leffingwell Road home in Canfield. Deputies credit a neighbor, Jerry Everett with saving the boy’s life when he saw him staggering in the driveway and made him lie down and applied tourniquets to his arms.

Phi Delta Theta fraternity wins the men’s division of Youngstown State University’s Greek Sing with a stirring rendition of “Green Fields” and Phi Mu sorority wins the women’s division with selections from “Oliver.”

1965: Five West Side youths, including the driver, William Cook, 16, are injured when their car skids on wet pavement and strikes a pole at Maryland and Mahoning avenues.

Fred R. Kanengeiser, 86, retired industrialist and founder of Poland Concrete Products Inc., dies at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Robert Zedaker.

General Fireproofing Co. shareholders elect four new directors: David Braham of New York, Daniel A. Heindel Jr. of Youngstown, A.J. Wardle Jr., president of McKay Machine Co., and Herbert C. Williamson Jr., a GF vice president.

1940: “Youngstown has everything to lose and nothing to gain by extending Fifth Avenue through the municipal golf course, Charles A. Leedy, a member of the city park and recreation commission, declares.

Fred A. Wagner, chairman of the Mahoning County commissioners, says employees of the county relief agency must refrain from politics during work hours or risk losing their jobs.

Elmer Smith, a Democratic candidate for Trumbull County Sheriff, says during a countywide Democratic Party rally that five slot machines can be seen operating within a block of Niles City Hall. Niles Mayor William Kennedy calls Smith a liar and threatens to evict him from the meeting.