YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2015. There are 145 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1815: Napoleon Bona-parte sets sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile.

1911: President William Howard Taft signs a measure raising the number of U.S. representatives from 391 to 433, effective with the next Congress, with a proviso to add two when New Mexico and Arizona become states.

1945: President Harry S. Truman signs the U.S. instrument of ratification for the United Nations Charter.

The Soviet Union declares war against Japan during World War II.

1953: The United States and South Korea initial a mutual security pact.

1963: Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” takes place as thieves make off with 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.

1968: The Republican national convention in Miami Beach nominates Richard Nixon for president on the first ballot.

1974: President Richard Nixon announces his resignation, effective the next day, following damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal.

2009: Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: In a special election, Newton Falls and Weathersfield school districts approve additional levies, while tax issues in the Brookfield and Mathews districts are defeated.

A crew from CBS-TV is in the Mahoning Valley gathering background information for a Morley Safer interview of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Poland, for airing on “60 Minutes.”

A poll conducted by Vic Rubenstein Associates shows Warren Mayor Daniel J. Sferra could win a fourth term in office with a 66 percent job approval rating and a 96 percent awareness level.

1975: Danny Brott, secretary and treasurer of Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown, denies published reports that the FBI has contacted members of the Youngstown local in connection with the disappearance of Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa.

Two class-action suits are filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, one by Carmen Naples representing residential electricity customers and one by Phil Torsk representing business customers, seeking $150 million each from the Ohio Edison Co. for rate hikes that the suits say were illegal.

A record low for the date is set at Youngstown Municipal Airport when the mercury falls to 45 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1948 by 6 degrees.

1965: The new Memorial Baptist Church on Water Street in Poland is nearing completion. The Rev. Albert R. Wynn is pastor.

Six teenagers from Central Christian Church in Youngstown leave for a youth-tour seminar in Puerto Rico. They are Betsy Dolan, Teresa Nagy, Donna Bailey, Rod Yocum, Robin Thayer and Larry Vaughn.

Youngstown City Council gives second reading to a resolution recognizing the United Steelworkers of America as the bargaining agent for employees of the Sewage Disposal plant.

1940: The largest crowd ever to attend the grocers picnic at Idora Park is estimated at 50,000 people. The parking lot was full and the midway was jammed with people shoulder to shoulder.

John E. Neff, member of a pioneer family and operator of a grocery store in Canfield for 50 years, dies at his retirement home in Miami, Fla., at age 91.

Marie Chieffo, a lyric soprano who graduated from Sharon High School in 1935 and went to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music, will return to the area to sing at the next pops concert of the Youngstown Symphony.