YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 6

Today is Friday, April 6, the 96th day of 2018. There are 269 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1830: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, N.Y.

1896: The first modern Olympic games formally open in Athens, Greece.

1909: American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson and four Inuits become the first men to reach the North Pole.

1917: The United States enters World War I as the House joins the Senate in approving a declaration of war against Germany that is then signed by President Woodrow Wilson.

1943: “Le Petit Prince” (“The Little Prince”) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is first published by Reynal & Hitchcock of New York.

1968: Forty-one people are killed by two consecutive natural gas explosions at a sporting goods store in downtown Richmond, Ind.

1998: The Dow Jones industrial average closes above 9,000 points for the first time, ending the day at 9,033.23.

Country singer Tammy Wynette dies at her Nashville home at age 55.

2014: Actor Mickey Rooney, 93, dies in North Hollywood.

2008: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking at a private fundraiser in San Francisco, speaks of voters in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt communities who “cling to guns or religion” because of bitterness about their economic lot.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: Ohio appellate court Judges Donald Ford of Warren, Edward Cox of Boardman and Rupert Doan of Cincinnati are appointed to investigate a claim that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Craig Wright used racial slurs during a taped conversation in the mid-1980s.

Boardman Township trustees vote unanimously to prohibit township police officers from working off-duty jobs at bars. About half the members of the force work such off-duty jobs.

Mercedes Benz is looking for a site in the U.S. for a plant that would employ 1,500 people building a new four-wheel-drive utility vehicle.

1978: In answer to a federal subpoena, Youngstown officials begin gathering, packing and locking up thousands of documents that make up the history of zoning changes since 1971. The FBI is conducting an investigation of zoning decisions that span two city administrations.

Niles police and the FBI are searching for a man who robbed the McKinley Federal Savings and Loan branch at the Eastwood Mall, escaping with $300.

An arbitration panel rules that many 20-year employees of 10 major basic steel companies, including the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., who were laid off or disabled before Jan. 1 are eligible for “Rule of 65” pensions. The rule applies to any employee with at least 20 years experience whose age and years of work total 65.

1968: Dr. Gladstone L. Brown, Youngstown district superintendent of Methodist Churches, is named district superintendent of the Cleveland District. Rev. James Dixon, pastor of Centenary Methodist Church, is named Youngstown superintendent.

The Youngstown community receives high praise from city officials and police for its conduct in the emotion-packed period after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. No major incidents were reported.

John Lopatta, founder and operating president of Falcon Foundry Co., dies in North Side Hospital after an illness of five weeks.

1943: A plan to provide retirement pensions for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. employees who earn at least $3,000 a year will be considered by shareholders at their annual meeting in April.

William Lewis is elected 5th Ward councilman by a 4-1 vote of council to serve out the unexpired term of the late Atty. Guy T. Ohl.

More than $15,000 in delinquent municipal court costs have been collected by Chief Bailiff Frank Wood.