YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 9

Today is Palm Sunday, April 9, the 99th day of 2017. There are 266 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1682: French explorer Robert de La Salle claims the Mississippi River Basin for France.

1833: The first tax-supported public library in the United States opens in Peterborough, N.H.

1865: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his army to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

1913: The first game is played at Ebbets Field, the newly built home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who lose to the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0.

1917: During World War I, Canadian forces launch a successful counteroffensive against German troops on the Western Front.

1939: Singer Marian Anderson performs a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

1940: During World War II, Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

1959: NASA presents its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 91, dies in Phoenix, Ariz.

1965: The new Astrodome in Houston features its first baseball game.

1983: The space shuttle Challenger ends its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

2012: A Florida special prosecutor says a grand jury would not look into the Trayvon Martin case, leaving the decision of whether to charge the teen’s shooter in her hands alone.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: A public defender surprises the Ohio Supreme Court when he argues not for a new trial for Danny Lee Hill, but for reversal of the verdict, which would set Hill free with no possibility of retrial. Hill was convicted in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court of murdering 12-year-old Danny Lee Hill.

Austintown Fire Chief Andrew Frost credits a passer-by, Steve Deskins, with saving a mother and three children whose Idaho Road home was gutted by fire. Hospitalized with serious injuries are Janie Byers, 40; Erika, 8; Sarah 5, and Carrie, 4.

Henry Krut Sr., 57, of Lake Milton, superintendent of the Austintown Township Road Department, has the only winning ticket in the $16 million Ohio Super Lotto drawing. He will take a lump sum payment of $6,789,325.

Society National Bank declares the Stambaugh Building the winner in a duel for downtown headquarters of its operations and those of Ameritrust. The Realty Building had made a strong bid as the new site.

1977: Shenango China Co. in New Castle, Pa., notifies some 750 striking members of USW Local 3125 that the company is withdrawing any proposals that had been made in an effort to reach a new three-year contract and end a five-week strike.

Boardman Center Middle School Seventh Grade team wins the Mahoning Valley Seventh Grade Basketball League title with a 12-3 record. Larry Napolitan led the team with a 15-point average and 11 rebounds a game.

Pennsylvania authorities warn motorists who register their cars in Ohio to avoid having to buy mandatory insurance or get their cars inspected that they will be prosecuted and could face fines of $500 in both Pennsylvania and Ohio.

1967: The Catalina Block Club, organized to prevent panic selling after the sale of homes to Negroes in the neighborhood, meets at The Rayen School. Two of seven real-estate agents named in January as being active in soliciting property owners to list their homes speak at the meeting, which was closed to the press.

The Air Force Reserve observes the 10th anniversary of the 910th Troop Carrier Group, successor to the 757th Squadron, at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Tammy Tabak, a sophomore physical education major at Youngstown University, is crowned queen of YU’s 17th annual military ball at Stambaugh Auditorium.

1942: Youngstown Sheet & Tube plants shatter all previous production records in March, producing 354,185 net tons of steel ingots.

A new war bond, designed for purchase by small clubs and organizations, is on sale at all Youngstown banks. Known as Series U, the bond costs $18.50 and has a 12-year maturity value of $25.

Beverly Ann Bayley, 8, on an errand to a store, is struck and killed by one of two cars that were racing in North Park Avenue near Douglas Street. The two drivers, one 19 and one 23, are arrested by Warren police four hours later.