YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, June 17, the 168th day of 2015. There are 197 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: The Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill results in a costly victory for the British, who suffer heavy losses.

1789: During the French Revolution, the Third Estate declares itself a national assembly, and undertakes to frame a constitution. (This gathering gave rise to the political terms “left wing” and “right wing,” with deputies representing commoners sitting to the left of the assembly president, and nobles sitting to the right.)

1885: The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isere.

1928: Amelia Earhart embarks on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger.

1930: President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosts U.S. tariffs to historically high levels, prompting foreign retaliation.

1940: France asks Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.

1944: The Republic of Iceland is established.

1953: U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas stays the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, originally set for the next day, the couple’s 14th wedding anniversary. (They were put to death June 19.)

1961: Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to the West while his troupe was in Paris.

1972:President Richard M. Nixon’s eventual downfall begins with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s, Watergate complex.

1985: Discovery Channel makes its cable TV debut.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: John M. Antonucci, president of ASM Investments Inc., reacts to criticism of his company’s plans for the Stonebridge development, saying it will turn the former Mahoning County Home on Herbert Road into a complex of condominiums and single- family homes, selling for between $120,000 and $300,000 each.

Austintown Fitch High School captures the Steel Valley Conference tennis championship. On Coach Frank Sachire’s team are Adam Chumita, Bill Aey, Buddy Brown, John Bobovnik, Steve Evans, Dimitri Haloulos, Vinnie Marino, Rich Kalosky, Garrett Frank and Shawn Burton.

A 265 percent increase in cases of syphilis in Ohio has health officials in Mahoning and Trumbull counties on alert for a resurgence of a disease that had been in decline in recent years.

1975: Seven Catholic bishops, including Bishop James W. Malone of Youngstown, will meet with President Gerald Ford to discuss several major concerns of religious leaders.

The Mahoning County Welfare Department estimates its social service costs for the next year at $2.2 million, an increase of more than $500,000 over the past year, says Ezell Armour, county welfare director.

Youngstown police arrest an Austintown man who was selling fireworks from the trunk of his car at a service station at Brookwood Road and Market Street.

1965: Robert Porter, 16, who would have been a senior at Niles McKinley High School in the fall, dies of injuries suffered when he fell 28 feet at the Arlington Arms apartments construction site. He was employed by Simco Enterprises of Girard.

Youngstown rackets figure Joseph Jasper “Fats” Aiello is convicted on two counts of aiding and abetting an abortion by a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas jury. He’s sentenced to two 1-to-7 year terms in the Ohio Penitentiary.

A new Division Street bridge will connect the Wickcliffe Expressway with West Federal Street at an estimated cost of $5.4 million.

1940: The Youngstown Parks and Recreation Commission announces the appointment of 92 people to work at the city’s playgrounds and six swimming pools.

Amateur flier Henry Kachel, a Youngstown lawyer, is grounded after leaving his plane overnight in a pasture near Cambridge, where a horse attracted by the banana oil in the “dope” fabric conditioner eats much of the fabric from the fuselage.

Dynamite placed in the fireplace of a home under construction at 27 Gypsy Lane causes $1,000 in damage. Contractor Anthony Zarlengo tells police he had been having labor trouble after firing one of his workmen.