YEARS AGO FOR MAY 31

May 31, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Wednesday, May 31, the 151st day of 2017. There are 214 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1790: President George Washington signs into law the first U.S. copyright act.

1889: Some 2,200 people in Johnstown, Pa., perish when the South Fork Dam collapses, sending 20 million tons of water rushing through the town.

1935: Movie studio 20th Century Fox is created through a merger of the Fox Film Corp. and Twentieth Century Pictures.

1949: Former State Department official and accused spy Alger Hiss goes on trial in New York, charged with perjury.

1962: Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel a few minutes before midnight for his role in the Holocaust.

1977: The Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making despite objections from environmentalists and Alaska Natives, is completed.

1985: Eighty-eight people are killed, more than 1,000 injured, when 41 tornadoes sweep through parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario, Canada, during an 8-hour period. The twisters caused fatalities and major damage in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.

2005: Breaking a silence of 30 years, former FBI official W. Mark Felt steps forward as “Deep Throat,” the secret Washington Post source during the Watergate scandal.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: Twenty years after he became the first black superintendent of Youngstown City Schools, Robert Pegues Jr. says the Board of Education should be bold as it seeks a new superintendent to replace retiring Superintendent Emanuel Catsoules.

Former Youngstown State University Quarterback Ray Isaac signs with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

Dr. George Beelen, chairman of the history department at Youngstown State University, returns from a 10-day trip to Moscow. He says efficiency, quality control, a competent work- force and a demand-driven economy have no meaning to the Russian people.

1977: Youngstown’s Memorial Day parade features 100 units, runs for 59 minutes and is witnessed by a crowd of 5,000.

Some of America’s top entertainers – Johnny Cash and Mel Tillis – are booked to perform at the Canfield Fair.

Sharon Steel Corp. is accused by its auditors, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., of having concealed and misrepresented “significant matters” affecting its 1974 and 1975 financial results. Board Chairman Victor Posner is accused of improper use of the company yacht, airplane, limousines and hotel facilities.

1967: Backed by an emergency law, police clear an estimated 500 motorcyclists from Geneva-on-the-Lake over the Memorial Day weekend. The law bans the wearing of Nazi helmets, chains and other gear worn by motorcycle clubs.

Almost $53,000 in federal educational grants are announced by U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan. The Youngstown Area Community Action Council got $27,970 for its Head Start program, and Youngstown City Schools got $25,000 for the purchase of a computer system.

Downtown in sunny 60-degree temperatures, the 70-minute-long Memorial Day parade attracted a crowd of 20,000. Mayor Flask laid a wreath at the Man on the Monument statue.

1942: Some 75,000 Youngstowners are thrilled to the biggest patriotic Memorial Day parade since the armistice.

La Verne Maze, a student at Woodrow Wilson High School, is crowned “Miss Victory” at the Grand Military Ball in Hotel Pick-Ohio.

The War Production Board orders production of all musical instruments stopped and freezes stocks of 37 types of band instruments.