YEARS AGO FOR APRIL 28

Today is Sunday, April 28, the 118th day of 2019. There are 247 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1758: The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, is born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

1788: Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

1789: A mutiny on the HMS Bounty takes place as rebelling crew members of the British ship, led by Fletcher Christian, sets the captain, William Bligh, and 18 others adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

1918: Gavrilo Princip, 23, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the archduke’s wife, Sophie, dies in prison of tuberculosis.

1945: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

1958: The United States conducts the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I.

Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, begin a goodwill tour of Latin America that is marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.

1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is stripped of his title after he refuses to be inducted into the armed forces.

U.S. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland tells Congress that “backed at home by resolve, confidence, patience, determination and continued support, we will prevail in Vietnam over communist aggression.”

1980: President Jimmy Carter accepts the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who had opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran. (Vance was succeeded by Edmund Muskie.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Alvahn L. Mondell, Democratic mayor of Salem, announces during a Salem Democratic Women’s candidates’ night, that he is renouncing his party affiliation and will become an independent. He also says he will not seek re-election.

Superstar Vince Gill, winner of five Country Music Association awards, will headline the entertainment at the 1994 Canfield Fair.

Three C-130 Hercules aircraft from the 910th Tactical Air Lift Group at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station will make a stop in Calcutta, India, to deliver humanitarian aid for a leper colony operated by Mother Teresa. The planes will then fly to Thailand for the annual “Golden Cobra” maneuvers.

1979: Amtrak President Alan Boyd says rerouting the Broadway Limited Line from New York to Chicago through Youngstown would be too expensive because of the poor condition of track through the city.

The newly formed Commuter Aircraft Corp. is giving Youngstown Municipal Airport “number one consideration and top priority” as the site of its first airplane manufacturing plant.

The Rev. Dale R. Griffin, former pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Leetonia, is named pastor of Zion Evangelical Church, 3300 Canfield Road.

1969: Nathaniel C. Lee, widely known civil-rights leader and former president of the Youngstown NAACP, is honored at a testimonial dinner at the Mahoning Country Club.

George Sinnett, 28, of Niles is pronounced dead at South Side Hospital after his car failed to negotiate a curve on state Route 46 near Smiths Corners in Austintown Township.

A dutiful son helping his mother start a stalled car was the victim of an unprovoked attack by two or three men at Chestnut Street and Warren Avenue in Niles. Floyd Sisco Jr. suffered facial injuries.

1944: Mahoning Sheriff Ralph Elser labels a grand jury report’s claim that the county jail is dirty and unsanitary as “political propaganda.” The jury made a surprise visit to the jail.

A military bridge built in Bougainville is dedicated to Pvt. Michael Vasko of Diamond, Ohio, and other Marines who lost their lives in that theater of operations.

Nick Johnson, athletic coach and pal to hundreds of boys of St. Columba parish, is honored at a farewell party at the church as he leaves for the armed service.