YEARS AGO FOR JUNE 5

Today is Wednesday, June 5, the 156th day of 2019. There are 209 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1794: Congress passes the Neutrality Act, which prohibits Americans from taking part in any military action against a country that was at peace with the United States.

1950: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racially segregated railroad dining cars are unconstitutional.

1967: War erupts in the Middle East as Israel, anticipating a possible attack by its Arab neighbors, launches a series of pre-emptive airfield strikes that destroy nearly the entire Egyptian air force; Syria, Jordan and Iraq immediately enter the conflict.

1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is shot and mortally wounded after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; assassin Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is arrested at the scene.

2004: Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, dies in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

2013: U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, many of them sleeping women and children, pleads guilty to murder at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, to avoid the death penalty; he later would be sentenced to life in prison.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: James Mondok, manager of the Mercer County, Pa., Conservation District, says a demonstration farm being developed in Coolspring Township can be an effective tool in showing farmers how to improve their yield in an environmentally friendly way.

The Worldwide Auto Parts Hot Rod Supernationals opens at the Canfield Fairgrounds, drawing hundreds of classic cars and thousands of spectators.

The Champion High School Lady Flashes win the state Division II softball championship, defeating LaGrange Keystone, 5-0. In track, Canfield’s Jason Frazier wins the Division II state 800-meter title, with a time of 1 minute, 54.98 seconds.

1979: Trumbull Common Pleas Judge David McLain issues a back-to-work order ending a three-day strike by Welfare Department workers.

The State Fire Marshal is called to the Trumbull County Fairgrounds to investigate a fire that destroyed three barns.

Ohio Edison asks the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for permission to discontinue steam service to downtown Youngstown after the next heating season. The company says customers have declined from 162 to 116 in the last six years.

1969: Al Wagner, widely known Youngstown Chrysler-Plymouth dealer, is retiring after 45 years in the business and selling his Market Street headquarters to William Stackhouse, head of Stackhouse Oldsmobile.

A citizens committee will circulate petitions in Boardman Township asking the Boardman Board of Education to place on the November ballot a bond issue and operating levy for a $2.2 million recreation center near the high school.

Austintown Fitch High School will award diplomas to the 473 members of its 1969 graduating class, the largest class in the school district’s history.

1944: Bishop James McFadden of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese expresses “delight” at the capture of Rome by the Allies, echoing the sentiments of many Youngstowners who have visited or lived in Rome.

The Youngstown Ministerial Association lodges a protest with Youngstown City Council against two pending ordinances, one that would provide licenses for charitable games of chance and one that would license and regulate mechanical amusements.

Mahoning County, one of the wealthiest counties in the state with its large industrial and public utility holdings, has a new tax duplicate of $357.6 million, which is $18.6 million higher than in 1942.