YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, March 14, the 74th day of 2016. There are 292 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1794: Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry.

1885: The Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “The Mikado” premieres at the Savoy Theatre in London.

1900: Congress ratifies the Gold Standard Act.

1923: President Warren G. Harding becomes the first chief executive to file an income tax return, paying a levy of $17,990 on his $75,000 salary.

1939: The republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation of Czech areas and the separation of Slovakia.

1951: During the Korean War, United Nations forces recapture Seoul.

1964: A jury in Dallas finds Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentences him to death. (Both the conviction and death sentence were overturned, but Ruby died before he could be retried.)

1966: The wildlife drama “Born Free,” inspired by a true story, has its world premiere in London.

1967: The body of President John F. Kennedy is moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery.

1976: Movie musical director and choreographer Busby Berkeley, 80, dies in Palm Springs, Calif.

1980: A LOT Polish Airlines jet crashes while attempting to land in Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team.

1990: The Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies has a secret ballot that elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev to a new, powerful presidency.

2006: Iraqi authorities report discovering at least 87 bodies of men shot to death, execution-style, as Iraq edges closer to open civil warfare.

2011: In the wake of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami and mounting nuclear crisis, President Barack Obama says that he has offered the Japanese government any assistance the United States could provide.

Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Darlene Love, Dr. John and Leon Russell are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

2015: Robert Durst, a wealthy eccentric linked to two killings and his wife’s disappearance, is arrested by the FBI in New Orleans on a murder warrant a day before HBO aired the final episode of a serial documentary about his life.

Math enthusiasts observed “Pi Day,” in which the date – 3-14-15 – lined up with the first five digits of the mathematical constant pi: 3.1415.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: U.S. Reps. James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland and Douglas Applegate of Steubenville announce that the Department of Veterans Affairs reaches an agreement to lease the North Side Lanes on Belmont Avenue for use as a VA clinic.

Youngstown Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says layoffs of as many as 50 city employees, including police and firefighters, loom if city council does not approve his proposed $7.50-per-month trash pick-up fee.

Parent volunteers who want to conduct screenings for head lice in Warren schools say the Warren Board of Education is dragging its feet in giving authorization.

1976: A body found in a shallow grave off Shannon Road on Youngstown‘s East Side is that of racketeer Phillip “Fleegle” Mainer, who is believed to have been shot in October 1974, shortly after he disappeared.

A poll indicates the Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter, a Republican, would run a close race in challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles J. Carney in the 19th Congressional District.

Salem High School Basketball Coach Len Hardman accepts the championship trophy after the Quakers defeat Struthers, 82-62, in the District AAA cage championship at the Struthers Fieldhouse

1966: William K. Quinby, general manager, announces that the General American Transportation Corp. expects its additional production facilities in Masury to be in use next year.

Mahoning County commissioners are exploring the possibility of allowing the Canfield Village and Canfield Township firefighters to burn down the old county road on Herbert Road.

Some popular brands increased the price of a pack of cigarettes by a penny. Local retail prices range from 25 to 35 cents a pack. The best price for a carton of 10 packs is $2.20

1941: Communists have tried in four different ways to get footholds in Youngstown College, President Howard Jones tells a Medical-Dental Bureau luncheon. Three or four tried to get hired, others tried to get speakers on campus or distribute pamphlets and form a youth group. All attempts were thwarted.

Rod Whitney, manager of the Youngstown Browns baseball team in the Mid-Atlantic Conference, is retiring from baseball to devote full time to his bowling alley in San Antonio.

The Warren Red Cross launches its annual drive with a goal of signing up 13,000 members, a 33-percent increase. The minimum membership donation is $1.

At the request of U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown, the House rivers and harbors committee puts other work on the back burner to discuss proposals for reservoir construction in the Mahoning Valley.