YEARS AGO FOR MARCH 27

Today is Wednesday, March 27, the 86th day of 2019. There are 279 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sights present-day Florida.

1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.

1964: Alaska is hit by a magnitude-9.2 earthquake (the strongest on record in North America) and tsunamis that together claim about 130 lives.

1977: In aviation’s worst disaster, 583 people are killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off in heavy fog, crashes in to a Pan Am 747 on an airport runway on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

1995: “Forrest Gump” wins six Academy Awards, including best picture and a second-consecutive best actor Oscar for Tom Hanks.

2006: Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testifies at his federal trial that he was supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.

2009: President Barack Obama launches a fresh effort to defeat al-Qaida terrorists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, ordering in 4,000 more troops.

2018: Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in an essay on The New York Times website, calls for repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for significant gun control legislation.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Lee Hooper, president of Sharon Tube Co., says the company is expanding its Mill Street plant in Sharon, creating an additional 20 jobs. Hooper says every car produced by the Big Three U.S. automakers has some of the company’s tubing in it.

Forward Larry Senvisky sinks a shot with 0.7 seconds left on the clock at St. John Arena to give Ursuline High School a 55-53 win over Lima Central Catholic and the Division III state championship.

A $60 million expansion and improvement project at the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District’s Meander Reservoir has nearly doubled to $109 million and will mean an estimated increase of $25 a year for water customers in Niles and Youngstown.

1979: The Liberty Board of Education votes to terminate interscholastic sports with Girard after administrators from both districts were unable to agree on proposals aimed at ensuring the safety of students at events.

The Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., which is awaiting $150 million in federal loan guarantees to build a new mill in Monessen, Pa., agrees to buy $16 million worth of equipment for the new mill from a Japanese Company.

By late July, half the jobs at J&L’s Brier Hill Works could be gone, says Ed Mann, president of Steelworkers Local 1462.

1969: One Youngstown area fighter wins and another loses in the 42nd National Golden Gloves tournament in Kansas City. Ernie Shavers knocks out Bernard Roberts of Roswell, N.M., in the heavyweight division, and Zack Page is knocked out by Roosevelt Molden of Lowell, Mass., in the 165-pound division.

The Youngstown Auto Club decides that it wants to relocate on the south side of East Front Street, opposite its present location, rather than remodel its building.

Patti Petretic, Youngstown State University sophomore majoring in education, is named Pershing Rifle Princess for 1969-70.

1944: Cpl. William P. Camp of Warren, member of a championship ping pong team, is among the guests of Lord Louis Mountbatten at the palace of the Viceroy of India. He also toured the Taj Mahal.

Julia Vona of Albert Street is in serious condition in St. Elizabeth Hospital with a gunshot wound of the breast resulting from a quarrel over money. Police are looking for the man who shot her after she refused him $3,000.

Sgt. Norman Ellis, local Marine recruiting officer, completes his 30th year as a Boy Scout member. He has received every award the Scouts have and is scoutmaster of Troop 23.