YEARS AGO FOR AUG. 28

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2019. There are 125 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1916: Italy declares war on Germany during World War I.

1944: During World War II, German forces in Toulon and Marseille, France, surrender to Allied troops.

1955: Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, is abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Miss., by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he would be found brutally slain three days later.

1963: More than 200,000 people listen as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1990: An F5 tornado strikes the Chicago area, killing 29 people.

1996: The troubled 15-year marriage of Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially ends with the issuing of a divorce decree.

2008: Surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd at Invesco Field in Denver, Barack Obama accepts the Democratic presidential nomination.

2012: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sweeps to the Republican presidential nomination at a storm-delayed national convention in Tampa, Fla.

2013: A military jury sentences Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Assistant Youngstown Fire Chief Joseph Durkin says safety officials have been pleasantly surprised by the relatively low number of false alarm or prank calls to 911 since the emergency number system was instituted in March.

The 148th Canfield Fair gets underway with Bob Evans, one of Ohio’s most respected farmers and entrepreneurs, cutting the ribbon. Country singer Vince Gill will be the headline entertainer.

As the new school year begins, a dozen area school districts have invested in computer equipment, with Hubbard opening a lab with 25 computers and Youngstown spending $600,000 for computer equipment in two upper elementary learning centers.

1979: The Pennsylvania State Education Association reportedly would like to make six Lawrence County school districts statewide examples of low-ball contract bargaining by school boards.

The U.S. Economic Development and Farmers Home administrations announce the largest federal loan guarantee in history for the steel industry – a $150 million package that will allow Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. to improve nine plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Gilbert Reed, a professor of ballet at the University of Utah, is named artistic director of Ballet Western Reserve.

1969: Thomas P. Racich is named executive director of the Youngstown Area Community Action Council, succeeding James Oliver, who resigned as head of the anti-poverty agency.

Sidney Moyer, co-chairman of the $1.75 million building campaign for St. Elizabeth Hospital, calls for community-wide support, noting that the Catholic nuns who run the hospital are color- and religion-blind.

The Mahoning County Chapter of the American Red Cross is asked to raise $35,705 as its share of the national relief effort for Hurricane Camille.

1944: Staff Sgt. Paul Wilson, 23, of Marlin Drive, Youngstown, receives one of the first two combat infantry badges awarded to a Negro in the Italian theater. Gen. Mark Clark presented the award.

Thousands of Youngstown area residents who have listened to “Town Meeting of the Air” on radio are expected to jam Stambaugh Auditorium for a coming national broadcast.

Columnist Esther Hamilton says one of the most beautiful views of downtown Youngstown is from the balustrade of St. Elizabeth Hospital. She asks readers for other suggestions.