Years Ago

August 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Monday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2010. There are 137 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: American forces win the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington.

1812: Detroit falls to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812.

1858: A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan is transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.

1894: George Meany, first president of the AFL-CIO, is born in the Bronx, New York.

1948: Baseball legend Babe Ruth dies in New York at age 53.

1954: Sports Illustrated is first published by Time Inc.

1956: Adlai E. Stevenson is nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1977: Elvis Presley dies at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: The Youngstown Civil Service Commission claims as many as 200 classified city employees may be violating the commission’s residency law, based on initial results of a study.

Supporters of the Austintown branch of the YMCA organize in a fund-raising effort to stave off closing of the building.

Youngstown’s “chop shop” law that permitted police to search auto dealerships and repair shops for stolen parts without obtaining warrants is declared unconstitutional by a federal court in Akron.

1970: Jay Kocak of Boardman and Kevin Lamb of Lordstown are eliminated in the third round of the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron.

Brothers William Macovitz, 18, and Robert, 10, are led to safety after a fire breaks out at their Lakewood Avenue apartment while they were sleeping. Another brother, Larry, and three friends awakened them and guided them through heavy smoke.

Five members of the Youngstown Branch of the NAACP are honored for selling over 100 memberships each: the Rev. Elizabeth Powell, Dorothy Woods, Walter Hogan, Floyd Haynes and Roland Alexander.

1960: The Fisher-Guilder Cartage & Storage Co. sells its building at 574 Mahoning Ave. to the Salvation Army and its business to Harry L. Bord Jr., its operating vice president.

In test operations the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. cuts in half the amount of objectionable smoke from two Campbell Works open hearth furnaces equipped with oxygen jets.

Dr. Wernher Von Braun says the United States will have to develop a new rocket system to put a man on the moon or equip the present Saturn Rocket with booster engines.

1935: Lightning strikes damage the chimney of the Realty Building in downtown Youngstown and kill a horse at the Warren Fairgrounds during a storm that dumped up to 1.9 inches of rain on the area.

Youngstown district steel operations hit 60 percent, the highest rates so far.