Years Ago

Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, July 20, the 201st day of 2011. There are 164 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1861: The Congress of the Confederate States convenes in Richmond, Va.

1917: The World War I draft lottery takes effect.

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

1951: Jordan’s King Abdullah I is assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman who was shot dead on the spot by security.

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

Vindicator files

1986: LTV Steel Corp., which filed for bankruptcy, sends letters to thousand of Mahoning Valley retirees informing them that medical and life insurance has been cancelled.

YSU Athletic Director Joe Malmisur says the university will respond to the national focus on drug use by athletes by initiating a comprehensive drug prevention program that will include drug testing of athletes.

1971: Mayor Jack C. Hunter says construction is set to begin on Youngstown’s new $7 million downtown post office.

Fines totaling $20.000 are leveled against 18 Youngstown area people who pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Thomas Lambros for gambling conspiracy.

1961: The first eye cornea transplant to be performed in Youngstown allows William Wagner, 75, of Salem, to see clearly again after five years of blurred vision. The operation was performed in St. Elizabeth Hospital by Dr. Paul Ruth and Dr. George Pugh.

Four Trumbull County men, including Anthony Delsanter, former partner in the Jungle Inn, who were nabbed in an IRS raid are fined $1,050 each for running a football pool without the $50 federal tax stamp.

Thieves accost, bind and blindfold Gary Kling, 20, of Girard, a driver for the Daugherty-Davis Co. tobacco wholesalers as he was making a delivery to the Penguin Bar on Mahoning Ave. and escape with $400 in cash and $200 worth of cigarettes.

1936: The 100th anniversary of the first McGuffey Reader will be observed at Miami University July 25 and 26 with distinguished men of the nation paying tribute to the Coitsville farm boy who acquired fame as the author of readers.

Winners of the district finals at the Nu-Elms Ballroom sponsored by The Youngstown Vindicator will be moving on to the Great Lakes competition in Cleveland. They are Sandy Rufo and Barbara Gree, waltz; Henry Vitullo and Rose Donofrio, fox trot; Charles and Catherine Cerni, tango; Frank Kimotek and Eleanor Comsea, eccentric dance and Toy Benn, solo tap.