YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, June 15, the 166th day of 2015. There are 199 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1215: England’s King John puts his seal to Magna Carta (“the Great Charter”) at Runnymede.

1775: The Second Continental Congress votes unanimously to appoint George Washington head of the Continental Army.

1836: Arkansas becomes the 25th state.

1864: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signs an order establishing a military burial ground, which became Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

1904: More than 1,000 people die when fire erupts aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York’s East River.

1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act making the National Guard part of the U.S. Army in the event of war or national emergency.

1944: American forces begin their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. B-29 Superfortresses carry out their first raids on Japan.

1978: King Hussein of Jordan marries 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby, who becomes Queen Noor.

1994: Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.

2005: The autopsy released on Terri Schiavo backs up the contention of her husband, Michael, that she had been in a persistent vegetative state, finding she was severely and irreversibly brain-damaged and blind.

2010: In his first Oval Office address, President Barack Obama promises that “we will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused,” describing the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a “siege” on the shores of America.

2014: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the Hamas militant group of kidnapping three Israeli teenagers who had disappeared June 12 (the teens’ bodies were found June 30).

Death claims “American Top 40” host Casey Kasem, 82; “Flowers for Algernon” author Daniel Keyes, 86; and French actor Jacques Bergerac, 87.

The San Antonio Spurs win their fifth NBA championship, beating the Miami Heat 104-87 to win the series in five games.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds a Michigan drunken-driving checkpoint program, and an Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman predicts motorists in the state will see more such checkpoints in the future.

A Mahoning County jury awards $450,000 to Sam Fasline Jr. of Youngstown for injuries suffered when he was chased by a poodle owned by John and Sandra Grisham that was running free. As Fasline was trying to avoid the dog while jogging on Oak Knoll Drive, the dog darted in front of a truck, and Fasline was struck in the head by the truck’s ramp.

Mark Pecchia hits two home runs, David Gessler has six hits, and David Pecchia, five, as Phar-Mor stretches its undefeated streak to eight, defeating LaFamelia, 4-0 and 15-4, in the Inner City Softball League.

1975: Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter and Community Development Director Robert R. Machuga will go to Washington, D.C., to review the possibility of developing an urban- homesteading program in the city

Plans for development of a 22-acre city park and school athletics complex behind Western Reserve High School in Warren have died quietly with the expiration of a federal grant that would have paid half the estimated cost of $365,000.

The Rev. Monsignor Andrew A. Prokop, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Austintown since its inception in 1954, will mark the 40th anniversary of his ordination with a Mass of Thanksgiving.

1965: Charles E. Craig, 47, of Lowellville, an Ohio Edison Co. worker, is electrocuted when the winch cable he was holding came in contact with a high-tension line on Lisbon Road, 2 miles south of Salem.

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Felger of Columbiana and Mrs. Ralph Barron of Youngstown tie for the sweepstakes trophy at the Fourth Annual Mahoning Valley Rose Society show in the McKelvey Hall of Music.

The Youngstown Police Department accepts an offer by Dr. Robert E. Hamlisch, director of the Youngstown Adult Mental Health clinic, to give a series of talks to police officers about how to defuse confrontations with emotionally disturbed patients.

1940: More than 1,500 men, women and children recite the Pledge of Allegiance to a giant flag at Stambaugh Auditorium to mark Flag Day.

More than 20,000 pottery workers and their families from eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania attend the annual outing of the National Brotherhood of Pottery Workers at Idora Park.

The Arion Chorus of Youngstown, 50 young singers under the direction of W. Gwynne Jenkins, wins first honors for mixed group chorus at the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s music festival in Cleveland Stadium.