YEARS AGO FOR AUG. 31

Today is Friday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2018. There are 122 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1886: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastates Charleston, S.C., killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

1939: The first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring the Human Torch, is published by Timely Publications in New York.

1954: Hurricane Carol hits the northeastern Atlantic states; Connecticut, Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts bear the brunt of the storm, which results in some 70 deaths.

1965: The U.S. House of Representatives joins the Senate in voting to establish the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

1987: The Michael Jackson album “Bad” is released by Epic Records.

1997: Prince Charles brings Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of his former wife to a Britain that is shocked, grief-stricken and angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident earlier that day.

2013: Short of support at home and allies abroad, President Barack Obama steps back from a missile strike against Syria and instead asks Congress to support a strike against President Bashar Assad’s regime for suspected use of chemical weapons.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: Despite high heat, the 148th Columbiana County Fair had attendance for the week of 48,873, about 1,200 more than a year earlier.

Responding to a lawsuit by six junior-high students who were strip-searched for drugs in December 1992, the New Castle Board of Education adopts rules for such searches, but refuses to abolish them. “We’ll do what’s necessary to keep drugs out of our schools,” says Angelo A. Papa Jr., a school board member.

Park Vista Retirement Community opens an adult day care center, at Christ Church Presbyterian on Canfield Road, designed to accommodate working caregivers of older people.

1978: A Youngstown-based firm, Energy Delivery Systems Inc., has a tentative option agreement to purchase the Ohio Edison Co. plant on North Avenue to turn solid waste into fuel to generate steam for downtown Youngstown.

A Mahoning County grand jury indicts a former Youngstowner on charges of complicity in the escape of two inmates in June. The report says the Police Department should investigate the backgrounds of prospective employees more thoroughly.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Manchester of Canfield cut the ribbon to the therapeutic playground at the Easter Seal Center on Edwards Street, which was given to the center by Youngstown Rotary as a tribute to the Manchesters’ service.

1968: Dr. Chaplain W. Morrison, a history professor at Youngstown State University, is among 30 arrested by Chicago police while marching outside the Democratic National Convention.

Two men sent to prison by two judges receive blistering lectures because guns were used in each case. William Robinson was sentenced to 10 to 25 years and James Washington to 1 to 15 years.

Eight YSU graduating seniors enroll in Reserve Officer Training Corps programs and commissioned second lieutenants: John Keller, Ronald Pusatari, Frank Braden Jr., Harold Hutzen, John O’Malia Jr., Robert Micco, John Fiasco and Edward Kresovsky.

1943: Youngstown City Council rejects two proposals, one for an airport commission and one for creation of a separate department in city government.

Youngstown Police chief Andrew Przelomski says vice-squad members will report the names of men arrested on suspicion or gambling charges to the area war manpower commissioner.

Pfc. Ralph Lazazzera, a Rayen School graduate serving with the infantry with the 43rd Division, is reported killed in action in the South Pacific. He had been wounded in July but recovered sufficiently to return to action.