Years Ago

July 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Thursday, July 29, the 210th day of 2010. There are 155 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1588: The English attack the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines, resulting in an English victory.

1890: Artist Vincent van Gogh, 37, dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.

1914: Transcontinental telephone service begins with the first test phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.

1948: Britain’s King George VI opens the Olympic Games in London.

1958: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.

1957: Jack Parr debuts as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

1967: An accidental rocket launch aboard the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin results in a fire and explosions that kill 134 servicemen.

1975: President Gerald R. Ford becomes the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland as he pays tribute to the victims.

1985: The space shuttle Challenger begins an eight-day mission that gets off to a shaky start — the spacecraft achieves a safe orbit even though one of its main engines shut down prematurely after lift-off.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: House Majority Leader Jim Wright, D-Texas, in Youngstown for a fund-raiser for Rep. James A. Traficant, says he opposes any tampering with Social Security to reduce the deficit in President Reagan’s budget.

Anna Martina Tedde is crowned queen of the 31st annual Girard Homecoming.

1970: Former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota will be in Youngstown for the funeral of U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan at St. Brendan Church.

The executive board of Leather Local 29 at the Ohio Leather Co. adopts a resolution opposing a half-percent increase in the Girard income tax.

1960: The congregation of Grace Lutheran Church in Hubbard approves construction of a modern $285,000 structure on Hall Avenue.

Bennie Mayfield, 10, and an adult neighbor, Harmon Wilford, herd four young children to safety after fire sweeps through Bennie’s house at 123 N. Fruit Street.

1935: Mahoning County Sheriff Ralph Elser leads raids on 12 liquor joints, 10 in Youngstown and two in Campbell, arresting a woman and eight men and confiscating 75 gallons of liquor.

Genevieve Hanna Clarke, 6, of Wickliffe is killed by a car while hurrying across Mahoning Avenue to a store to buy a can of milk for an orphan puppy.