YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 21

Today is Saturday, April 21, the 111th day of 2018. There are 254 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1509: England’s King Henry VII dies. He is succeeded by his 17-year-old son, Henry VIII.

1649: The Maryland Toleration Act, providing for freedom of worship for all Christians, is passed by the Maryland assembly.

1836: An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeats the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.

1918: Manfred von Richthofen, 25, the German ace known as the “Red Baron” who was believed to have downed 80 enemy aircraft during World War I, is himself shot down and killed while in action over France.

1930: Fire breaks out inside the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, killing 332 inmates.

1977: The musical play “Annie,” based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, opens on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,377 performances.

2013: On the first Sunday since the deadly Boston Marathon bombing, churches pause to mourn the dead and console the survivors while in West, Texas, residents pray for comfort four days after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 15 people.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: The Youngstown Board of Education quashes a plan to lay off 17 psychologists, speech therapists and audiologists, but votes to nonrenew the contracts of 26 teachers.

Myron E. Ullman III, a Canfield native and grandson of one of the founders of Manchester, Bennett, Powers and Ullman, heads the R.H. Macy Co. as it reorganizes under bankruptcy.

Only four months after leaving the Ohio House of Representatives, veteran lawmaker Joseph J. Vukovich is heading back to the state legislator as a senator, replacing Sen. Harry Meshel of Youngstown who resigned to become chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.

1978: New Castle Mayor Francis Rogan says he has been told that a new post office will be built in New Castle.

In anticipation of decreasing enrollment, the Youngstown Board of Education votes to nonrenew the contracts of 56 teachers.

Youngstown City Council approves an increase in city ambulance service charges for $10 to $15 a trip. The city ambulance at Fire Station 1 makes about 3,600 trips a year.

1968: The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reverses a decision by a District Court judge in Columbus that had freed Youngstown racketeer Joseph “Joey” Naples from the Ohio Penitentiary in June. The appeals court found police did not violate Naples’ constitutional rights in searching his North Side home.

Boardman High School’s drama group wins a superior rating and Robert Pondillo, Fitch High School captured first place in radio announcing at the Ohio High School Speech League finals.

John Parker, sophomore at Chaney, wins third place in physics at the 1968 Pittsburgh National Science Fair at Buhl Planetarium with a cathode ray oscilloscope.

1943: Doctors, nurses and civilian defense organizations are combating an outbreak of smallpox in the steel-producing Steubenville, Ohio-Weirton, W. Va., district, says state health director R. H. Markwith.

Children in public schools will have only two days of vacation at Easter instead of customary week, but school will close for summer vacation June 11 instead of June 18.

Rep. Michael Kirwan is confident the proposed $3.5 million Mosquito Reservoir will be built this year to protect Mahoning Valley steel industry against flood and low water.