Vindicator Logo

YEARS AGO FOR AUG. 16

Friday, August 16, 2019

Today is Friday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2019. There are 137 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1812: Detroit falls to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812.

1858: A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan is transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.

1920: Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is struck in the head by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. (Chapman died the following morning.)

1948: Baseball legend Babe Ruth dies in New York at age 53.

1977: Elvis Presley dies at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.

1987: Some 156 people are killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes while trying to take off from Detroit; the sole survivor is 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan.

1999: The U.S. version of the quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” hosted by Regis Philbin, begins a limited two-week run on ABC.

2000: Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominate Al Gore for president.

2003: Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda, dies in Saudi Arabia at 80.

2018: Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul,” dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: A chain-reaction crash in Interstate 80 near West Middlesex, Pa., involving five cars, two buses and three trucks injures 30 people and shuts down the road in both directions for hours. The buses were part of a convoy returning security works to Chicago after they worked at Woodstock ’94.

Niles Mayor Ralph Infante says he is negotiating with city employee unions on a plan that would allow city workers to move outside the city after they’ve been employed for a specific number of years.

Lear Seating Corp. of Michigan unveils its 97,000-square-foot plant on Bailey Road that will provide seats for General Motors cars produced in the Lordstown plant.

1979: A suspicious fire guts the interior of the new home of Charles McCrae, a black man who planned to move into 3917 Frederick St. in a predominantly white neighborhood in Austintown.

Sharon Steel Corp. reports second quarter net earnings of $30 million, a record, on sales of $270 million.

Elden R. Groves, editor of Farm and Dairy, which is published in Salem, says family farms are getting larger, but they are still family-owned and dominate American agriculture.

1969: A controversial trainload of World War I phosgene gas trundles through Youngstown on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad during the night, on its way from Colorado to New York for disposal.

Lawrence F. Pontuti, former Woodrow Wilson athlete, is named principal of East Palestine High School.

The Canfield Swim Club Inc. opens its $133,000 pool. Plans are underway for construction of tennis, basketball and volleyball courts.

1944: T/Sgt. William Jarvis Jr., 21, home on furlough from Camp Sutton, drowns in the Lincoln Park pool after being stricken with heat cramps.

All restaurants charging more than 5 cents for a cup of coffee must prove that they had charged that amount between Oct. 4 and 10, 1942.

Youngstown Schools Superintendent Paul C. Bunn says that a nearly complete staff has been assembled for the opening of school, despite manpower shortages.