YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 24

Today is Monday, April 24, the 114th day of 2017. There are 251 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1792: Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle begins composing “War Song for the Rhine Army,” later known as “La Marseillaise,” the national anthem of France.

1800: Congress approves a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

1898: Spain declares war on the United States.

1947: Novelist Willa Cather, author of “My Antonia,” dies in New York at age 73.

1967: Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft smashes into the Earth after his parachutes fail to deploy properly during re-entry; he becomes the first human spaceflight fatality.

1980: The United States launches an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that results in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

1997: Comedian Pat Paulsen dies in Tijuana, Mexico, at age 69.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: The Mahoning Valley Preservation Club is spearheading an effort to save the Idora Park Ballroom. (The ballroom burned down in 2001.)

Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey says the Democratic Party’s presidential primary process is on track to produce a candidate who cannot win the national election – Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

Five members of the Youngstown Board of Education – Billy Tanner, Anthony C. Julian, Rose DeGise, Don L. Hanni III and Sarah Brown Clark – will attend the National School Boards’ Association Convention in Orlando, Fla., at a cost of $6,500.

1977: Lt. Col. Eileen Bradish is the first woman to command the Youngstown State University ROTC unit in its 27-year history.

The owners of the Hotel Ohio in downtown Youngstown announce that it will close in 30 days and suggest that the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority buy the building to house senior citizens.

The Youngstown Municipal Airport is getting a $460,000 radar system, testament to the growing importance of air travel to Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

1967: Fire sweeps through the Golden Record, a teenage dance spot on U.S. Route 422 near Niles, causing $75,000 in damage.

An electronic tic-tac-toe machine made by Liberty High students Rick Averbach and David Grossman is on display at the 1967 Pittsburgh Regional School Science Fair at Buhl Planetarium.

Youngstown University’s Dana Woodwind Quartet will open the first annual Warren Spring Festival of the Fine and Performing Arts with a concert at the Kinsman House.

Youngstown detectives are examining a car believed to have run down Betty Senich, 38, in an alley behind the 279 Lounge on Mahoning Avenue, which she managed. Police believe her death is a homicide.

1942: About 24,000 men from Mahoning County between age 45 and 64 are expected to sign up for the military draft. One of them is U.S. Rep. Michael Kirwan, who lives in Draft Board No. 5.

Mahoning County has about 10,000 of Ohio’s 195,000 aliens, only 10 percent of whom are seeking citizenship. The WPA will begin a drive to get more aliens into citizenship classes.

Three district schools – Rayen, Struthers and Boardman – are among 60 entries in the annual Ohio Wesleyan University relays.

The Great Lakes’ largest steamer, the 500-foot Sandbee, built in 1913 to ply the Cleveland-Buffalo route, is being converted from a passenger ship that could carry 2,300 passengers into an aircraft carrier.