YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2015. There are 122 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1886: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastates Charleston, S.C., killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

1888: Mary Ann Nichols, believed to be the first victim of “Jack the Ripper,” is found slain in London’s East End.

1939: The first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring the Human Torch, is published by Timely Publications in New York.

1941: The radio program “The Great Gildersleeve,” a spinoff from “Fibber McGee and Molly” starring Harold Peary, debuts on NBC.

1954: Hurricane Carol hits the northeastern Atlantic states; Connecticut, Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts bear the brunt of the storm, which results in about 70 deaths.

1962: The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago become independent of British colonial rule.

1965: The U.S. House of Representatives joins the Senate in voting to establish the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

1972: At the Munich Summer Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz wins his fourth and fifth gold medals in the 100- meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay; Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut wins gold medals in floor exercise and the balance beam.

1980: Poland’s Solidarity labor movement is born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ends a 17-day-old strike.

1989: Britain’s Princess Anne and her husband, Capt. Mark Phillips, announce they are separating after 15 years of marriage.

1997: A car crash in Paris kills Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul.

2005: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said there is “a significant number of dead bodies in the water” after Hurricane Katrina; Nagin orders virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and instead stop increasingly hostile thieves. President George W. Bush, who views the devastation from Air Force One, pledges to do “all in our power” to save lives and provide sustenance but cautions that recovery of the Gulf Coast would take years.

Some 1,000 people were killed when a religious procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors of a suicide bomber.

2010: President Barack Obama ends the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war in his country and around the world: “It is time to turn the page.”

One year ago: On the Sunday talk shows, leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees prodded President Barack Obama to take decisive action against what they said were growing threats from Islamic State militants on U.S. soil.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Negotiations between Youngstown school officials and the 1,000-member teachers union have stalemated, and a federal mediator has been called in to help avert a strike.

An alert is declared briefly at the Duquesne Light Co.’s nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pa., but officials say there was a fire suppression system malfunction, and there was no risk to the public.

The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown announce that their dream to reach out to the homeless and help single mothers break out of poverty is becoming a reality after receiving a $50,000 loan from the city and an anonymous donation of a Fifth Avenue home that will become Beatitude House.

1975: Youngstown public schools expect about 21,000 students in classrooms on opening day, compared to the Average Daily Membership figures of 21,829 in October 1974. (Approximately 5,100 students attend the city school district today.)

Authorization for a $1.8 million free-standing agricultural center at the Mahoning County Joint Vocational School in Canfield is included in the Ohio budget awaiting Gov. James Rhodes’ signature.

Youngstown State University’s first three graduates to receive bachelor of fine arts degrees in theater have all been selected for graduate assistantships that will lead to master’s degrees. Dirk Fischer will go to the University of Oklahoma; John Ashby, Michigan State University, and Michael Miller, the University of Denver.

1965: Automatic Sprinkler Co. of Youngstown offers $26 million to acquire the assets of Whitin Machine Works in Witinsville, Mass., a 134-year-old company that makes textile, food processing and shoe-repair machinery and printing presses.

D.M. Fadely and his wife, Helen, will speak at a Kiwanis luncheon about their two years of missionary work in Liberia, West Africa. They were granted leave by the Board of Education.

Strouss-Hirshberg department store will build a large parking garage at Wick Avenue and West Commerce streets for its flagship downtown Youngstown store.

1940: After wounding two men while holding up the Italian-American Educational Club, 593 Mahoning Ave., a gunman was captured and badly beaten by several of the 25 guests whose party had been interrupted by the holdup.

The 94th annual Canfield Fair has the greatest number of exhibits in its history.

Mickey, the 18-month -old Mahoning County Jail cat, is dead. He was killed apparently by his favorite prey, jail rats. He was buried in a shallow grave by Deputy Tom Butch and the grave was marked with an empty condensed milk can.