YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 14

Today is Good Friday, April 14, the 104th day of 2017. There are 261 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: The first American society for the abolition of slavery is formed in Philadelphia.

1828: The first edition of Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language is published.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth during a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater in Washington.

1912: The British liner RMS Titanic collides with an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40 p.m. ship’s time and began sinking. (The ship went under two hours and 40 minutes later with the loss of 1,514 lives.)

1939: The John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is first published.

1981: The first test flight of America’s first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ends successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. calls for formation of a regional water conservation district that would use water from Lake Milton and Berlin Reservoir and would provide suburban communities with water for which they would not have to pay a surcharge.

Kirila Contractors Inc. of Brookfield is awarded a construction contract for a $10 million Ohio Turnpike Interchange near the Lordstown General Motors plant.

Jack C. Hunter, former Youngstown mayor and a member of the Ohio Board of Education, says a plan working its way through the General Assembly to reduce the board from 21 to 11 members could face a challenge in federal court because it would reduce minority representation on the board.

1977: Youngstown City Council authorizes the Board of Control and police department to begin negotiations with Mahoning County commissioners and the sheriff’s office for the proposed city-county jail.

Youngstown drops to the 114th largest city in the country with a population of 132,203 people, about 18,000 fewer than in 1970 when it was the 98th largest.

Three passengers are hospitalized and nine others are injured when a small bus operated by the Mercer County Association for the Retarded, rolls over at Pa. Routes 318 and 468 near Mercer.

1967: Holley Keenan, 13, of Canfield had been looking for his pet dog “Schotzye” since July and decided to spend his allowance money on one last Vindicator ad, which was seen by the Leonard Lint family in Poland. The four sisters who had been caring for the dog, reunited the boy and “Schotzye” and declined a $25 reward.

C.M. Johnson, superintendent of Canfield schools, submits his resignation to the board of education, citing ill health.

Beulah Hill, 23, of Warren and her 6-week-old son, Jack Jr., are killed when the car in which they were riding struck two trees on Route 45 just north of the city.

1942: The Youngstown Municipal Railway Co.’s passenger traffic has increased 8.5 percent since January – greater than the Christmas rush. Buses are carrying 60 percent of their capacity.

Fifteen Youngstown men who expect to be called into the Army appear for the first session at a free “hardening up” physical education course at the Central YMCA.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce proposes that Congress impose a retail sales tax of 10 percent, which would raise $5.8 billion in new revenue for the war effort.