YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, March 17, the 77th day of 2016. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick’s Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: The Revolutionary War Siege of Boston ends as British forces evacuate the city.

1861: Victor Emmanuel II is proclaimed the first king of a united Italy.

1912: The Camp Fire Girls organization is incorporated in Washington, D.C., two years after it was founded in Thetford, Vt. (The group is now known as Camp Fire USA.)

1936: Pittsburgh’s Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood begins as the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, swollen by rain and melted snow, started exceeding flood stage; the high water is blamed for more than 60 deaths.

1941: The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington, D.C.

1966: A U.S. Navy midget submarine locates a missing hydrogen bomb that had fallen from a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain. (It took several more weeks to actually recover the bomb.)

1969: Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel.

1988: Avianca Flight 410, a Boeing 727, crashes after takeoff into a mountain in Colombia, killing all 143 people on board.

2006: Federal regulators report the deaths of two women in addition to four others who had taken the abortion pill RU-486; Planned Parenthood says it would immediately stop disregarding the approved instructions for the drug’s use.

Fashion designer Oleg Cassini dies on Long Island, N.Y., at age 92.

2011: The U.N. Security Council paves the way for international airstrikes against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, voting to authorize military action to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

2015: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party wins a resounding victory in parliamentary elections after an acrimonious campaign, giving him a mandate to form the next government.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. and Mahoning Valley political leaders plan to fight efforts in the Ohio General Assembly to split the 17th Congressional District into two or possibly three pieces through redistricting.

Trumbull County Sheriff Richard Jakmas questions why 25 Warren city officials and 14 Trumbull County officials have unmarked license plates meant to be issued to those doing undercover police work on the government cars that they drive. Cars owned by the city and county are supposed to carry plates showing they are owned by government entities.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Youngstown has reservations about Gov. George V. Voinovich’s plan to privatize state liquor stores, suggesting that private employees will not be as well-trained as state employees on the need to avoid sales to minors.

1976: Mayor Jack C. Hunter says Youngstown will vigorously oppose Allegheny Airlines’ plan to drop its already-dwindling service at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Warren and Trumbull County officials announce that a tentative agreement has been reached with the U.S. Department of Labor to use federal funds for the recall of all 121 laid-off Warren employees.

President Ford’s decision to limit imports of specialty steel could increase prices of some products to consumers because imports are 20 to 30 percent below domestic prices.

1966: Five Youngstown University coeds vie for Military Ball Queen: Diane Nagy of Niles; Kathy Shulack and Suzanne Mastropietro of Bessemer, Pa.; Eileen M. Turner of East Palestine; and Mary Lou Gonz of Brookfield.

Vincenzo Rossi, 71, owner of Rossi Fireworks Manufacturing in New Castle, Pa., is killed and five are injured in a series of explosions at the plant.

A federal grand jury in Cleveland indicts four men for running a white slavery ring in Youngstown, Warren, Salem and Hickory, Pa.

1941: Congressman Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown says he has never seen President Franklin D. Roosevelt more forceful than when he delivered his “arsenal of democracy” speech. Kirwan was one of 20 congressmen at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner.

The Rayen School basketball team will meet Newark in the opening round of the state championship basketball tournament in Columbus. Canfield will play Marysville.

Some 1,000 people attend three services dedicating the new $35,000 Boardman Methodist Church.