YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, June 24, the 175th day of 2015. There are 190 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1509: Henry VIII is crowned king of England; his wife, Catherine of Aragon, is crowned queen consort.

1793: The first republican constitution in France is adopted.

1880: “O Canada,” the future Canadian national anthem, is first performed in Quebec City.

1908: Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, dies in Princeton, N.J., at age 71.

1939: The Southeast Asian country Siam changes its name to Thailand. (It went back to being Siam in 1945, then became Thailand once again in 1949.)

1940: France signs an armistice with Italy during World War II.

1948: Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the western allies to organize the Berlin Airlift.

1975: Some 113 people are killed when Eastern Airlines Flight 66, a Boeing 727 carrying 124 people, crashes while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

1983: The space shuttle Challenger – carrying America’s first woman in space, Sally K. Ride – coasts to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

2005: Despite growing anxiety about the war in Iraq, President George W. Bush refuses to set a timetable for bringing home U.S. troops and declares, “I’m not giving up on the mission. We’re doing the right thing.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Tony Buttar is honored for completing his 30th year as head track coach at Warren JFK High School.

Floyd Travis, 83, of Youngstown, who spent his life building race cars, including A.J. Foyt’s car that won the 1961 Indianapolis 500, is inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, Iowa.

Ohio Republican Chairman Robert Bennett contends that the 17th Congressional District will lose in the 1991 redrawing of congressional districts because U.S. Rep James A. Traficant Jr. has “no support in either party.” But James Ruvulo, Democratic Party chairman, says Democrats will not offer Mahoning County voters as sacrificial lambs.

1975: The Western Reserve Transit Authority is saved from having to shut down when it secures a $160,000 loan from Mahoning National Bank.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Lambros terminates probation for gambling kingpin Joey Naples and orders him to serve a five-year prison term after finding that Naples lied about buying an air conditioner for a Coitsville farmhouse that serves as a numbers clearinghouse.

1965: Lightning hits the Armco Country Club golf course in Butler, Pa., killing four of 10 men who sought refuge in a shelter on the 16th hole. Dead are John Katruyck, Andrew Dobda, Allen Polack and Eugene Haran.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan joins President Johnson in shuttling between two giant fundraising Democratic banquets in Washington, D.C., one at the Hilton Hotel and one at the National Armory.

1940: The Republican National Convention opens in Philadelphia with U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft of Cincinnati and Wendell Willkie, former Akron lawyer who became a utilities tycoon, as the front runners for the presidential nomination.

Acting under orders from F. C. Harrington, national commissioner of the Works Projects Administration, Ohio and Youngstown district WPA officials are launching a campaign to oust Communists, Nazis and other subversive group members.