YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 24

Today is Tuesday, April 24, the 114th day of 2018. 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.

1947: Novelist Willa Cather dies in New York at age 73.

1953: British statesman Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1967: Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft smashes into the Earth; he is the first human spaceflight fatality.

1980: The United States launches an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran. Eight U.S. servicemen are killed.

1990: Space shuttle Discovery blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.

2008: The White House accuses North Korea of assisting Syria’s secret nuclear program.

2013: In Bangladesh, a shoddily constructed eight-story commercial building housing garment factories collapses, killing more than 1,100 people.

2017: Two inmates receive lethal injections on the same gurney about three hours apart as Arkansas completes the nation’s first double execution since 2000.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: The Packard Electric Division of General Motors exercises its option to acquire 100 percent of Cableados Integrados S.A. (CISA), an electrical wiring harness manufacturer in Belchite, Spain.

Ten Air Force Reserve members return from 30 days of volunteer service in Europe where they had taken part in U.S.-sponsored Bosnian relief operations.

1978: The cost of environmental cleanup in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys from the booming days of the steel industry is estimated at $600 million to $1.5 billion.

Vandals strike Camp Akela at the Mahoning Valley Boy Scout Council’s Cub Scout camp on Leffingwell Road in Canfield Township, destroying a storage building and restrooms. The damage is so severe that it endangers the summer Cub Scout camping program.

Maj. L. David Ziegler, a 1959 graduate of Youngstown University who was commissioned through the ROTC program, is installed as president of the Mahoning Chapter, Reserve Officers Association.

1968: Miriam Ullman, one of the area’s leading promoters of music for the community who died suddenly, leaves her estate in trust for the benefit of her husband, Atty. Carl W. Ullman, after which it will transfer to the Youngstown Foundation for distribution to the Monday Musical Club.

Defense Secretary Clark Clifford is expected to decide within a week whether or not to reopen the Ravenna Arsenal of production of ammunition.

The Federal Aviation Agency grants Youngs-town $295,117 toward a $600,000 lighting and taxiway improvement project at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

1943:Judge Henry P. Beckenbach says he has seen an increase in parents of delinquent children who act irritated at being called into court. They blame the police, schools or the neighborhood – rather than themselves – for the wrongful acts of their children.

Flying Officer Robert Reed of the Royal Canadian Air Force is killed in action. Reed, 25, known here as Bobby, was born and raised in Lowellville and enlisted in the Canadian Air Force when he was a senior at the University of Mississippi.