YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Nov. 13, the 318th day of 2016. There are 48 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: Benjamin Franklin writes in a letter to a friend, Jean-Baptiste Leroy: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

1849: Voters in California ratify the state’s original constitution.

1909: Some 259 men and boys are killed when fire erupts inside a coal mine in Cherry, Ill .

1927: The Holland Tunnel opens to the public, providing access between lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1933: The first sit-down strike by workers takes place at a Hormel meat plant in Austin, Minn.

1937: The NBC Symphony Orchestra, formed exclusively for radio broadcasting, makes its debut.

1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1956: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public city and state buses.

1969: Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accuses network TV news departments of bias and distortion, and he urges viewers to lodge complaints.

1974: Karen Silkwood, a 28-year-old technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., dies in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.

1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin, is dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

1985: Some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, die when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

1991: Walt Disney’s animated feature “Beauty and the Beast” has its world premiere.

2006: President Bush leads a ceremonial groundbreaking on the National Mall for a memorial dedicated to civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.; former President Bill Clinton, who’d signed the measure authorizing the memorial, is also present.

2011: President Barack Obama dives into a day of summit diplomacy in his home state of Hawaii as he gathers with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

2015: The worst attack on French soil since World War II takes place as Islamic State militants carry out a set of coordinated attacks in Paris killing 130 people and wounding more than 350.

Russia’s track federation is suspended by the International Association of Athletic Federations and its athletes barred from world competition for a widespread and state-sanctioned doping program; it is the first time the IAAF banned a country for doping.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Dustin Benson, 10, and Tony Bielik, 9, are honored by Austintown Township trustees for their quick action in saving the life of a friend, Kyle Christy, who was being strangled by a scarf that became entangled with the spinning motor of a go-cart.

Health care professionals and patients would have to disclose that they were infected with AIDS or the HIV virus under a bill passed by the Ohio House of Representatives.

Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at Youngstown State University is suspended and four of its members are expelled by the national organization for hazing of pledges that included paddlings and forced consumption of alcohol.

1976: Dr. Louis T. Almen, 55, executive director of the Division for Professional Leadership of the Lutheran Church, is elected president of Thiel College in Greenville, Pa.

Plans are moving ahead to remove architectural barriers to the handicapped at the McKinley Memorial Library, using $21,000 in Community Development funds approved by Niles City Council.

The Mahoning Women’s Center at 420 Oak Hill Ave. has applied for a license under the city’s new law regulating clinics that provide abortions, but Robert Millich, the city health department’s administrator, says the soonest that a license could be issued is Nov. 23.

1966: Niles defeats Warren, 22-6, to keep its undefeated record for the season before 15,000 fans.

Donald B. McKay, Home Savings and Loan Co., and Carl Inodle of First Federal, announce that interest rates on all passbook savings will be increased to 4.25 percent.

The Youngstown Board of Trade announces that downtown stores will be open until 9 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays until Christmas, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

1941: Frank Purnell, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., and other steel executives will meet with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and labor leaders in an effort to solve the bituminous coal dispute already affecting our area.

Youngstown police Chief John Turnbull assigns two detectives to investigate the death of John Strazik who died after being struck with a billy club by Patrolmen Arthur J. Moore Jr. Stazik allegedly resisted arrested for drunkenness.

Nearly 50 artists will take part in special events and exhibits for National Art Week at the Butler Institute of American Art.