Years Ago

Today is Saturday, July 9, the 190th day of 2011. There are 175 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: The Declaration of Independence is read aloud to Gen. George Washington’s troops in New York.

1816: Argentina declares independence from Spain.

1850: The 12th president of the United States, Zachary Taylor, dies after serving only 16 months of his term. (He is succeeded by Millard Fillmore.)

1896: William Jennings Bryan delivers his famous “cross of gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1918: One hundred and one people are killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tenn.

The Distinguished Service Cross is established by an Act of Congress.

1947: The engagement of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten is announced.

1951: President Harry S. Truman asks Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany. (An official end to the state of war is declared in October 1951.)

1974: Former U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren dies in Washington, D.C., at age 83.

1982: A Pan Am Boeing 727 crashes in Kenner, La., killing all 145 people aboard and eight people on the ground.

1986: The Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography releases the final draft of its report, which links hard-core porn to sex crimes.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-17th, will attempt to block the Internal Revenue Service from using in his upcoming tax evasion trial tapes of conversations he had with alleged mobsters.

Mahoning County commissioners approve a 3 percent lodging tax to fund the newly formed Youngstown-Mahoning Convention and Visitors Board.

Eight Youngstown area residents graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo.

More than 100 clowns from 14 grottoes in four states will meet for the 7th annual Aut Mori Grotto clown convention at Southern Park Mall.

1971: A 10-year-old boy, Claude Robert Moore of Hillman Street, drowns in South Side Park Pool. The body was found during a routine pool inspection at 5 p.m.

A 26-year-old Breaden Street man identifies an 18-month-old child found in a parked car as his daughter and says she ended up in the car without his knowledge due to a dispute between him and his estranged wife.

A violent car-truck crash near Camp Perry kills two Youngstown area National Guardsmen, Robert Renaldy and James Bovara.

Nine Youngstown area youths are arrested by Pennsylvania state police during a party at a quarry near New Castle where marijuana, firearms and alcohol were found.

1961: Youngstown’s Continental, Ward and Schwebel bakeries reject the latest demands from Local 177 of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union.

In response to public reaction, the Liberty Board of Education reluctantly drops its requirement that high school students read books from a list of classics during the summer.

Richard A. Simms, valedictorian of Austintown Local School District, is awarded a $1,400 annual scholarship to Cornell University.

1938: The mercury rises to 103 in Youngstown, with no relief in sight. Authorities say 138 people have died nationwide due to heat, including a Youngstown fireman on the P & LE Railroad, Millard Blackwell.

Youngstown Law Director Vern B. Thomas says the city will seek WPA funding for the widening of Commerce Street.