YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, Aug. 11, the 224th day of 2016. There are 142 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1909: The steamship SS Arapahoe becomes the first ship in North America to issue an S.O.S. distress signal, off North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras.

1965: Rioting and looting that would claim 34 lives breaks out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles.

1984: During a voice test for a paid political radio address, President Ronald Reagan jokes that he has “signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

1997: President Bill Clinton makes the first use of the historic line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. (However, the U.S. Supreme Court later struck down the veto as unconstitutional.)

2006: TV talk-show host Mike Douglas, who began his career in Cleveland, dies in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on his 81st birthday.

2011: Minnesota rivals Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann spar bitterly during an eight-candidate Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa; Mitt Romney seeks to stay above the fray as he focuses on President Barack Obama, saying, “Our president simply doesn’t understand how to lead and how to grow the economy.”

2014: Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams, 63, dies in Tiburon, Calif. His death is ruled a suicide.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: A poll of local school superintendents shows most support some sort of year-round schooling that is being debated by the General Assembly.

An estimated 100 nonprofit agencies in Mahoning County transport clients in vans and small buses purchased with government funds, yet nearly one-fourth of elderly and disabled county residents say in a survey that they have problems getting to doctors, pharmacies, stores and church.

1976: The Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. opens its largest shopping mall yet, the 2.2 million-square-foot Randall Park Mall in the Cleveland suburb of North Randall.

Three Boardman policemen file suit against Boardman Township trustees, challenging their demotions from captains, saying trustees violated Ohio’s Sunshine Law when they met in a closed session without notifying the public that a meeting would take place.

Six adventurous Youngstown State University students have completed 1,700 miles of their 2,000-mile canoe trip to New Orleans. They are Dan Schultz, Jeff Brown, Mark McCaughey, Chris Stark, Jon Steen and Don Brett, all of Poland.

1966: Whether the Mahoning County Welfare Department will remain on Belmont Avenue or move to the Hotel Ohio remains undetermined because of problems with a proposed lease.

1941: The courageous resistance of British civilians to the fury of German bombs is pictured in “Thumbs Up,” a film being presented by the British War Relief Society in Central Auditorium.

The counsel for Craig Beach Park denies that a roller coaster that plunged off the track was defective, noting that it had been inspected recently. A rider, Fred Sutherland, 24, of Youngstown has died of injuries suffered in the accident.

S. George Johnson of Youngstown leaves for Detroit to attend the convention of the Scandinavian Fraternity of America, of which he is retiring supreme president.

Dr. S.G. Patton, Mahoning County health commissioner, warns bathers to stay clear of Lake Milton over fears of infantile paralysis.