Years Ago

July 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Tuesday, July 20, the 201st day of 2010. There are 164 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1810: Bogota, the capital of Nueva Granada (present-day Colombia), declares independence from Spanish rule.

1861: The Congress of the Confederate States begins holding sessions in Richmond, Va.

1917: The draft lottery in World War I goes into operation.

1944: An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler fails when a bomb at Hitler’s Rastenburg headquarters only wounds the Nazi leader.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

1960: A pair of Polaris missiles are fired from the submerged USS George Washington off Cape Canaveral, Fla. at a target more 1,100 miles away.

1969: Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon after landing their lunar module.

1990: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, one of the court’s most liberal voices, announces he is stepping down.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: The earliest of the 1,000 Youngstown area fans of Bruce Springsteen start lining up outside the Liberty Plaza the day before tickets go on sale there for the Aug. 7 concert by “The Boss” in Cleveland.

The Rev. Lawrence C. Fye, pastor of St. Louis Church, Louisville, is named rector of St. Columba Cathedral, succeeding the Rev. Martin S. Susko.

An unexplained high concentration of iron in the water of Waddell Pool in Niles turns the water opaque and prompts officials to close the pool.

1970: Grace Elaine Bird, a student at Mount Union College in Alliance who plays the French horn and sings, wins the Miss Ohio pageant at Cedar Point and will compete in the Miss America competition in Atlantic City.

Fire guts the Clemons Restaurant at 1501 S. State St. in Girard. Damage is estimated at $60,000.

Mayor Jack C. Hunter says consultants are planning a Central Square remodeling that could include depressing Wick-Market streets beneath the square and closing Federal from Phelps to Champion streets with an enclosed mall.

1960: Secret Service agents make one arrest and seize a printing press and printing supplies in Liberty Township that were part of a $100,00 0counterfeiting operation.

Ground is broken for the $32 million Sharpsville Dam on the Shenango River.

1935: Arthur J. Schultz, 39, of Austintown, president of the Austintown Fish and Game Association, is killed when his car strikes a tree in Salt Springs Road near Leo Avenue.

Warren cruiser patrolmen George Mock and Morris Marowitz nab three Pennsylvania men wanted for robbing and kidnapping two men near Saxonburg, Pa., after stopping their car at Chestnut and Market streets because the men were acting suspiciously.