YEARS AGO FOR MARCH 15

Today is Friday, March 15, the 74th day of 2019. There are 291 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

44 B.C.: Roman dictator Julius Caesar is assassinated by a group of nobles that includes Brutus and Cassius.

1493: Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in the Spanish harbor of Palos de la Frontera, two months after concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

1820: Maine becomes the 23rd state.

1913: President Woodrow Wilson meets with about 100 reporters for the first formal presidential press conference.

1919: Members of the American Expeditionary Force from World War I convene in Paris for a three-day meeting to found the American Legion.

1956: The Lerner and Loewe musical play “My Fair Lady” opens on Broadway.

1985: The first internet domain name, symbolics.com, is registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.

1998: CBS’ “60 Minutes” airs an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey, who says President Bill Clinton made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993, a charge denied by the president.

2018: A pedestrian bridge under construction collapses onto a busy Miami highway, crushing vehicles beneath massive slabs of concrete and steel; six people die and 10 are injured.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District Board of Directors votes to increase the bulk water rates charged to the cities of Youngstown and Niles by 183 percent. If the increase goes through, it could cost the average water user in those cities about $5 more per month.

The Rev. Gregory Boyle, a priest who runs a mission in a largely Hispanic area of Los Angeles, tells students at Cardinal Mooney High School that despair breeds the growth of gangs and gang violence.

The Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. has bought 5 miles of railroad in Warren from CSX Transportation Inc. for $182,000 to protect access to Copperweld Steel, General Refractories and Luntz Corp.

1979: In special elections, voters in Boardman approve a 7-mill school levy, 5,941 to 5,790, and Liberty voters approve a 7.4-mill school levy, 2,144 to 1,922.

United Steelworkers Local 1462 and the Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley file suit in federal court for access to documents and material used by the Justice Department in approving a merger of Lykes and LTV corporations.

Dr. William R. McGraw, dean of the College of Fine Arts at YSU, presents a slide show and talk to the Youngstown Rotary Club on his trip to the Republic of China.

1969: Youngstown steel operations will reach between 78 and 80 percent as U.S. Steel lights its 13th open hearth at the Ohio Works and Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. blows in a fourth blast furnace and adds another open hearth at its Campbell Works.

First Aid by Nina Petrillo, a 21-year-old student nurse, and fire department ambulance crew save the life of George Klemm, 16, who suffered cuts of the throat and leg when he was pushed through a Gray Drug Store plate-glass door.

Five youths using gasoline to clean auto parts in the garage spark a fire that does $10,000 in damage to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Stanaitis on North Warwick Avenue in Austintown.

1944: Mayor Ralph O’Neill announces plans to establish a city dog pound as part of a fight against rabies, which claimed the third life in the county in eight months.

A P-51 Mustang pursuit plane that costs $75,000 will bear the name of the Campbell Memorial High School after students purchased $82,000 in war bonds.

A full house is expected at Stambaugh Auditorium for Joseph Dunninger, “The Master Mentalist.” The Camp Reynolds 32-piece band will play popular and light classic melodies.