YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 1

Today is Saturday, April 1, the 91st day of 2017. There are 274 days left in the year. This is April Fool’s Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1917: Scott Joplin, “The King of Ragtime Writers,” dies at a New York City hospital. He was believed to have been 49.

1924: Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. (Hitler was released in December 1924; during his time behind bars, he wrote his autobiographical screed, “Mein Kampf.”)

1933: Nazi Germany stages a daylong national boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

1945: American forces launched the amphibious invasion of Okinawa during World War II.

1954: The U.S. Air Force Academy is established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1984: Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father, Marvin Gay Sr. in Los Angeles, the day before his 45th birthday.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: Class cuts at Youngstown State University are causing havoc with some students unable to register for classes they need to graduate.

Gov. George Voinovich signs into law a bill introduced by state Rep. Ronald Gerberry of Austintown that will provide two types of diplomas for high-school graduates and will require more proficiency testing.

Three minor earthquakes, strong enough to cause rumbling and shaking floors, have hit Ashtabula in a week, possibly caused by high pressure injections of nontoxic industrial waste water into a deep well nearby.

1977: Youngstown district steel operations will advance sharply with a spring increase in steel buying, bringing operations to an estimated 73 to 75 percent of capacity.

Shareholders of Commercial Shearing Inc. receive a bonus when directors declare a 50 percent stock dividend. Earnings of $1.8 million are reported on first-quarter sales of $32.5 million.

Youngstown’s cost of living is a little higher than the national average, putting the area in a somewhat less favorable spot, the Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce reports in its latest survey.

1967: Members of the Mercer County Chapter of the National Farmers Organization vote to conduct a public sale of milk cows for slaughter at the local Livestock Market, part of a continuing effort to get higher milk prices.

Topics aimed at improving teenage driving discussed at the ninth annual Mahoning County Youth Traffic Safety Conference attended by more than 450 youths at the South High Field House.

Tickets are on sale for the McKinley High School production of “The Music Man” directed by Fred Fusco and Mrs. Joseph Danielson and featuring Duane Lanham and Nancy Pallante.

Bob Gibson, Bowling Green University head football coach, will deliver the main address at East High School’s banquet. Gibson was a star at Woodrow Wilson High and Youngstown University.

1942: No air-raid wardens have been appointed and no identification cards issued to prospective air-raid wardens in Youngstown, so no one has been authorized to inspect homes.

A Mahoning County jury of six men and six women deliberates for 13 hours before finding Curtis Little, 26-year-old steelworker, not guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, Florence, 34, at their West Laclede home. Judge Erskine Maiden told the jurors that if they had found Little guilty, he would have set the verdict aside.

A copy of an article, which appeared in a Honolulu paper, telling of the 34 days that Anthony Pastual of Youngstown and his two companions spent on a life raft in the Pacific Ocean, has been sent to the Reuben McMillan Free Library.