YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, May 21, the 142nd day of 2016. There are 224 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1471: King Henry VI of England dies in the Tower of London at age 49.

1542: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto dies while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.

1881: Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross.

1892: The opera “Pagliacci,” by Ruggero Leoncavallo, premieres in Milan, Italy.

1924: In a case that draws much notoriety, 14-year-old Bobby Franks is murdered in a “thrill killing” carried out by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (Bobby’s cousin).

1927: Charles A. Lindbergh lands his Spirit of St. Louis monoplane near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 331/2 hours.

1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean as she lands in Northern Ireland, about 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland.

1941: A German U-boat sinks the American merchant steamship SS Robin Moor in the South Atlantic after the ship’s passengers and crew were allowed to board lifeboats.

1945: Actors Humphrey Bogart, 45, and Lauren Bacall, 20, are married at Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio (it was his fourth marriage, her first, and would last until Bogart’s death in 1957).

1972: Michelangelo’s Pieta, on display at the Vatican, is damaged by a hammer-wielding man who shouted he was Jesus Christ.

1982: During the Falklands War, British amphibious forces land on the beach at San Carlos Bay.

1991: Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a suicide bomber during national elections.

2006: Iraq’s new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, promises to use “maximum force” if necessary to end the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence racking his country.

2011: The apocalypse does not arrive, despite the prophecy of 89-year-old Christian broadcast group operator Harold Camping, who had been predicting the rolling global destruction of Judgment Day for years.

2015: The Family Research Council says it has accepted the resignation of Josh Duggar in the wake of the reality-TV star’s apology for unspecified bad behavior as a young teen. (Duggar later admitted molesting five underage girls as a teenager, including two of his sisters, cheating on his wife and being addicted to pornography; those revelations led to the cancellation of the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting.”)

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: The final count of the Democratic primary election race between Warren Mayor Daniel Sferra and his challenger, Roger Hernon, gives Sferra a 42-vote victory.

The 11th District Court of Appeals rejects convicted killer Marie Poling’s “battered wife” defense, but Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins says he expects other husband-killers to attempt to use such a defense until the Ohio Supreme Court sets some standards on how and when the defense can be raised.

Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says the scheduled layoff of 50 Youngstown employees will put the city “in turmoil.” Ambulance service, one fire station and the consumer affairs office will be closed.

1976: The Youngstown Diocese adopts a policy that will limit the assignment of parish pastors to 10-year terms and assistant pastors to six years.

A mugger lurking in a Park Vista restroom beats and robs a resident, Kent Oberlin, 80, who was treated for a broken nose at South Side Hospital.

Olympic athletes and coaches employed by the state of Ohio will get full-paid leave to take part in the games under a bill signed by Gov. James A. Rhodes. Rhodes also signed legislation specifying that all water beneath the surface of Ohio, regardless of depth, is to be considered “waters of the state,” subject to pollution controls.

1966: City Planning Associates of Mishewaka, Ind., is awarded a $5,000 contract by the Youngstown Board of Control for detailed planning on the second urban renewal project in the Youngstown University area.

The public is invited to a free concert by the 83-piece Youngstown University Symphonic Band in the C.J. Strouss Memorial Auditorium in Jones Hall.

1941: The level of Lake Milton is dropping at a rate of a half-inch per day, reports Harry Middleton, lake caretaker. Unless there is rain soon, the water supply will last only 30 more days.

Emmett S. Freed, principal at Hayes Junior High School, marks the end of a 27-year career in Youngstown schools as he retires at the end of the semester.

Republic Steel Corp. receives an order for 9,500 tons of pipe, bringing to 52,000 tons the amount to be produced in local mills for two pipelines for the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey.