YEARS AGO FOR AUG. 31

Today is Saturday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2019. 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.

1888: Mary Ann Nichols, believed to be the first victim of “Jack the Ripper,” is found slain in London’s East End.

1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.

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

1980: Poland’s Solidarity labor movement is born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ends a 17-day-old strike.

1986: Eighty-two people are killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collide over Cerritos, Calif.

1994: The Irish Republican Army declares a cease-fire.

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.

2017: Rescuers begin a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes, looking for anyone who might have been left behind in the floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: The Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals rules that an 18-month prison sentence imposed on former Columbiana County Treasurer Ardel F. Strabala in March was legal.

Twenty-two new houses are planned on Youngstown’s West Side in an 8-acre project supported by city tax abatements and road construction. It will be known as Ashford Commons.

Longtime Howland Township Trustee John D. Emanuel surprises fellow trustees with his announcement that he is resigning, followed by his request to be appointed township administrator. After a lengthy executive session, he is given the $45,675-a-year job.

1979: Gov. James A. Rhodes mediates a dispute between the city of Warren and Bazetta Township over providing water service for a $23 million Kmart distribution center in Bazetta.

Mark Nobel, 19, and Debra Cook, 18, both of Berlin Center, are crowned 4-H king and queen at the Canfield Fair.

Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Reed Battin fines the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union $5,000 for defying his order that striking deputy’s return to work. The seven-day strike has been settled.

1969: Construction funds for a new Youngs-town Post Office may be included in the 1971 budget, says U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, D-Youngstown.

Boardman’s new $6 million high school is featured in the Rotogravure.

Dr. Richard Murray, Youngstown plastic surgeon, throws his talent and enthusiasm into bringing the Manhattan Festival Ballet to Powers Auditorium.

Esther Hamilton reports the third-straight record day of attendance at the 123rd annual Canfield Fair with 85,871 passing through the gates Saturday.

1944: The Ohio State Association of Letter Carriers will hold its biannual convention in Youngstown. Some 550 delegates are expected at the Pick-Ohio Hotel.

Pfc. William V. Cooper, former assistant manager of the Youngstown Sears-Roebuck store, is reported killed in action in France.

Juvenile Court Judge Henry Beckenbach sends three girls to the Industrial School at Delaware as part of a crackdown on houses of ill repute after reports of soldiers at Camp Reynolds developing venereal disease after visiting Youngstown.