YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, April 23, the 114th day of 2016. There are 252 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: President-elect George Washington and his wife, Martha, move into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.

1954: Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hits the first of his 755 major-league home runs in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The Braves won, 7-5.)

1969: Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence later was reduced to life imprisonment.)

2015: Blaming the “fog of war,” President Barack Obama reveals that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have inadvertently killed an American and an Italian, two hostages held by al-Qaida, as well as two other Americans who had leadership roles with the terror network.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: A smoke packet given to a robber by a cashier at the Bank One branch at 1160 W. Market St. in Warren explodes as the robbers ran from the bank, just as a police car was passing by. Warren police track down one robber and turn him over to the FB I. Two others are being sought.

In a rare occurrence, Jasmine, a 20-year-old mare owned by Marian Koren of Champion, gives birth to twin foals, Shane and Shannon, both of whom are healthy.

For the second time in six years, the financially strapped Youngstown YWCA is considering selling its Austintown facility, known as the YW-West.

1976: Clyde Crawford, former Lowellville farmer who played football at Rayen School “when it was a kid’s game” and minded his father’s feed store, will be honored for 75 years as a Mason. Crawford, who will be 98 in August, petitioned a Masonic lodge at the age of 23.

Republic Steel Corp. says it will spend $25 million over the next two years to reduce air pollution at its Youngstown and Warren plants.

Gov. James A. Rhodes orders a freeze on hiring in all Ohio departments as a response to a projected budget shortfall of $230 million.

1966: Some 300 college students nearing graduation receive orders from three Mahoning County draft boards to report in May for pre-induction physicals.

The object in the sky a Portage County deputy sheriff and his partner chased for an hour and a half into Pennsylvania was the planet Venus, says the Air Force. Hundreds of Ohio and western Pennsylvania residents reported seeing the brilliant and shiny object in the sky at about the same time.

Donald M. Smith, of Poland, manager of advertising and sales promotion for General Fireproofing, is elected president of the Youngstown chapter of Industrial Advertising.

A new post office complex to house a main building, a motor-vehicle facility and a parcel-post unit in downtown New Castle is proposed by U.S. Rep. Frank Clark, D-Bessemer. Clark would tie the project to the $4 million Lower Neshannock Urban Renewal Program.

1941: Republic Steel Corp. banks its No. 2 blast furnace and is inspected to bank another one soon because of the coke shortage as a result of a continuing strike. So far, 75 of its 212 coke ovens are dampened.

The best singers and musicians in public schools are getting ready for a music festival at South High School. A thousand children will sing to the accompaniment of 100 musicians under the direction of Guy Fraser Harrison, conductor of the Rochester Civic Orchestra.

Kathryn Crum, 20-year-old Youngstown soprano, will sing the role of Mercedes when the Youngstown Symphony presents “Carmen” at Stambaugh Auditorium. She is a graduate of Juilliard Institute of Musical Arts.

Four fellow Youngstown councilmen testify in common pleas court that 2nd Ward Councilman John J. DelBene never tried to influence their vote with money on legislation for the proposed McGuffey low-income housing project.