YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 12

Today is Wednesday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2017. There are 263 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1606: England’s King James I decrees the design of the original Union Flag, which combined the flags of England and Scotland.

1861: The American Civil War begins as Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

1934: “Tender Is the Night,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is first published in book form after being serialized in Scribner’s Magazine.

1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he is succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

1955: The Salk vaccine against polio is declared safe and effective.

1963: Civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Ala., charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit. (During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”)

1975: Singer, dancer and civil-rights activist Josephine Baker, 68, dies in Paris.

1992:Euro Disneyland (now called Disneyland Paris) opens in Marne-La-Vallee, France, amid controversy as French intellectuals bemoan the invasion of American pop culture.

2012: Jury selection begins in Greensboro, N.C., for the corruption trial of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, charged with six counts of campaign finance fraud. (The jury ended up acquitting Edwards of accepting illegal campaign contributions.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: Mary Duke, coordinator of Teen Straight Talk, a private program sponsored by Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, says abstinence, not “safe sex,” is the answer to the AIDS epidemic.

The Ohio Auditor’s Office says the city of Niles has signed $300,000 in various service agreements over a period of two years without seeking competitive bids.

Youngstown Law Director Edwin Romero says that Youngstown and Niles should go to court and ask that the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District be abolished and replaced by a body jointly administered by the cities.

1977: The Isaly Dairy Co. of Pittsburgh, which took over the main operations from the Youngstown division in 1970, is purchased for $7.3 million by Clabir Corp., a Connecticut company that manufactures ammunition and runs two fast-food chains.

The Trumbull County Board of Elections proposes the first stage of a computerized election that will ultimately change the way people register and vote in the county.

Youngstown civic and aviation leaders turn out for the groundbreaking of Youngstown Municipal Airport’s $1.8 million terminal improvement program.

1967: The first 500 members of Teamsters Local 377 begin retuning to work after major truckers and the international union reach a tentative agreement on a three-year contract.

Youngtown-area residents interested in applying for 32 weeks of vocational training as tire recappers are urged to visit the Ohio State Employment Service.

1942: Mahoning County commissioners abandon plans to construct a new bridge at Spring Common until after the war.

Lowellville will have completely dry Sundays from now on. All of the village’s liquor dealers who have 3.2 beer permits to remain open on Sundays have agreed to close on Sundays hereafter.

Twenty-eight Vindicator carrier salesmen from the Youngstown district are in Washington, watching the nation’s capital at work in wartime, as a reward for outstanding sales achievements in March.