YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, April 22, the 112th day of 2015. There are 253 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1864: Congress authorizes the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.

1889: The Oklahoma Land Rush begins at noon as thousands of homesteaders stake claims.

1915: The first full-scale use of deadly chemicals in warfare takes place as German forces unleash chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium during World War I; thousands of soldiers are believed to have died.

1930: The United States, Britain and Japan sign the London Naval Treaty, which regulates submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding.

1944: During World War II, U.S. forces begin invading Japanese-held New Guinea with amphibious landings at Hollandia and Aitape.

1952: An atomic test in Nevada becomes the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb is dropped from a B-50 Superfortress.

1954: The televised sessions of the U.S. Senate’s Army-McCarthy hearings begin.

1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson opens the New York World’s Fair.

1970: Millions of Americans concerned about the environment observe the first “Earth Day.”

1983: The West German news magazine Stern announces the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler; however, the diaries turn out to be a hoax.

1990: Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon free American hostage Robert Polhill after nearly 39 months of captivity.

1994: Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, dies at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.

2000: In a dramatic pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seize Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian is reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

Broadway producer Alexander Cohen dies in New York at age 79.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Gary Kubic, city of Youngstown’s finance director, says a two-year effort to cut costs at the Youngstown Municipal Airport have failed, and the city may be forced to shut down passenger-service operations.

At the urging of students, Kent State University Trumbull Campus is exploring the possibility of opening a day-care center either on or near the campus.

Collectively the San Francisco 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers have won eight Super Bowls, and their Vince Lombardi trophies and their championship rings will be on display at the Butler Institute of American Art. A new show there will celebrate sports and feature the art of LeRoy Neiman.

1975: The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments on behalf of eight former truck drivers for Anchor Motor Freight Co. of Lordstown who were fired for allegedly submitting motel receipts that were higher than the amounts they actually paid.

Austintown Township residents attending a meeting held by trustees at the Middle School voice their overwhelming support for a curfew that would require youths under 17 to be off the street by midnight.

An overnight low of 20 degrees at Youngstown Municipal Airport shatters the record of 26 for the date set in 1959.

1965: The Ohio House votes to give universities the authority to require Ohio high school graduates to spend the first two years of college at one of their branch campuses.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. completes its new Super Right Meat Center in Salem, a plant large enough to house three football fields. Gov. James A. Rhodes will cut the ribbon at a grand opening ceremony.

Sen. Edmund A. Sargus, D-St Clairsville, charges that a coal lobbyist, Ford Sampson, opposed to Sargus’ tough strip-mine bill, approached him in the Senate chamber and threatened him with “professional and political extinction.”

1940: Twenty-four city trucks begin canvassing all city streets collecting rubbish placed at the curb as part of the citywide Clean-Up, Paint-Up and Create-a-Job campaign.

Martha H. Williams, 90, of 458 Lexington Ave., is knitting sweaters and socks for the American Red Cross to distribute in the European war. It is the fourth war for which she has knitted, the first three being the Civil, Spanish-American and World wars.

Two bandits escape with $15 after slugging Earl Erwin, 23, an attendant at a gas station at 1631 Belmont Ave.