Years Ago

June 12, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2010. There are 202 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: Virginia’s colonial legislature becomes the first to adopt a Bill of Rights.

1898: Philippine nationalists declare independence from Spain.

1920: The Republican national convention, meeting in Chicago, nominates Warren G. Harding for president on the tenth ballot. Calvin Coolidge is nominated for vice president.

1939: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y.

1963: Civil rights leader Medgar Evers, 37, is fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Miss. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he dies in 2001.)

1967: The Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, strikes down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.

1987: President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, publicly challenges Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Senate Minority Leader Harry Meshel of Youngstown says the Republican budget is “crass and insensitive” and will cost the Mahoning Valley millions in state support.

A General Motors spokesman says the company’s long-awaited decision on where it will build a $3.5 billion Saturn small-car production plant will be announced within weeks.

1970: Bud Muth, president of UAW Local 1112, says more than 3,900 production workers at the General Motors Chevrolet plant at Lordstown will walk off the job unless a backlog of grievances is settled within five days.

David G. Jenkins, a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge for 44 years, dies in South Side Hospital at the age of 90.

Advertisement: 1970 Challenger 2-door hardtop, $2,498 plus tax and title at Strausbaugh’s Dodge, 1097 Wick Ave.

1960: Youngstown civic leader Innoceno Vagnozzi is honored for a lifetime of public service by more than 350 people at the Mural Room. Francesco Mezzalama, Italian consul in Cleveland, awards him Italy’s “Star of Solidarity.”

John F. Walter, supervisor of audio-visual education in Youngstown city schools for 21 years, retires and will join the faculty of Youngstown University.

1935: Mahoning County Sheriff Ralph Elser leads raids against two downtown spots alleged to be headquarters for the bug in Youngstown, arresting six. Meanwhile, Sam “Buffalo Joe” Barusa of Youngstown, reputed king of the numbers racket in the city, pleads guilty to gambling charges in New Castle, Pa.

Walter Koza, 15, of Struthers drowns in Lake Hamilton near the spillway while swimming alone, becoming the Youngstown area’s first bathing casualty of the season.