YEARS AGO FOR MARCH 31

Today is Saturday, March 31, the 90th day of 2018. There are 275 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1492: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issue an edict expelling Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity.

1889: French engineer Gustave Eiffel unfurls the French tricolor flag from atop the Eiffel Tower, marking its completion.

1923: The first U.S. dance marathon, held in New York City, ends with Alma Cummings, who had danced with six-consecutive male partners, setting a world record of 27 hours on her feet.

1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which creates the Civilian Conservation Corps.

1958: The Chuck Berry single “Johnny B. Goode” is first released on the Chess label.

1968: At the end of a nationally broadcast address on Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson stuns listeners by declaring, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

2017: Pope Francis marks Christianity’s most joyous day at the Vatican with a passionate plea for world peace.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: Boardman police and federal authorities say they have found no sign that a vandal tainted meat at a Boardman and an Austintown supermarket, as had been reported by an anonymous telephone tipster.

Atty. Maureen Cronin, Youngstown city prosecutor, tells a gathering at YSU’s Kilcawley Center marking Women’s History Month that only a small percentage of women who are beaten prosecute the men who beat them.

Two Austintown residents say they own part of the 12-mile long abandoned Conrail railroad bed that the Mill Creek Metropolitan Park District wants to develop as a bicycle path through Mahoning County.

1978: Police are called to break up a shouting match between Girard Mayor Nick D’Eramo and two city councilmen as a discussion of the city’s half-percent income tax becomes heated.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency files suit in federal court to stop Copperweld Steel Corp. from polluting the Mahoning River.

Nicholas Yacavone, a member of St. Nicholas Byzantine Church, is named Byzantine Man of the Year by the Byzantine Men’s Association.

1968: Dr. Donald Renwand, Niles superintendent of schools, says a student’s family behavior often contributes to the student’s likelihood of dropping out of school.

James E. Olney, president of Trailex Aluminum Boat Trailer Co., says the Canfield company produced 2,000 trailers in 1967 and expects to double that in 1968. The trailers can also be used to haul motorcycles and antique cars.

General American Transportation Corp. transfers its fleet-maintenance operations of railroad-tank-car to its Sharon Works in nearby Masury from Chicago.

1943: A wildcat strike of about 500 employees at Yougnstown Sheet & Tube Co.’s Campbell Works ties up production of tubes used to produce bombs.

After Councilman James Minehart urges that all cars on city parking lots lacking official plates be towed, he, various department heads and acting Mayor Arthur Gundry found their cars had been towed.

Rt. Rev. Mgsr. John Kenney, pastor of Immacualte Conception Church from 1910 to 1925, dies in Cleveland.

Some 250 laborers of various city departments, now paid under three different wage scales while performing identical work, will be paid equal wages. The base scale will be 78 cents per hour.