YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, July 29, the 210th day of 2011. 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 in the U.S. begins with the first test phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.

1921: Adolf Hitler becomes leader (the “fuehrer”) of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

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

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

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 shuts down prematurely after lift-off.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: The Youngstown Board of Control will not approve severance pay of more than $110,000 to Thirley Starks, former 2nd Ward council aide, unless Mrs. Starks signs an affidavit attesting that she earned the money.

Thunderstorms dump as much as 1.7 inches of rain on the Mahoning Valley, making July the wettest on record with 8.19 inches of rain registered at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Paul Thayer, former chairman of Dallas-based LTV Corp., has been moved from a federal prison to a halfway house after serving 13 months for concealing illegal insider stock deals.

1971: Local 2163 United Steel Workers and officials of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. are working on a plan to keep the Campbell Works coke ovens hot in the event of a national steel strike.

Youngstown police and the Mahoning County coroner use a tattoo to identify a badly beaten body found on the railroad tracks at the Lederer Terminal Building as Zane Clinton Good, 48, of W. Chalmers Avenue.

1961: Representatives of 10 district law enforcement agencies meet behind closed doors with Mahoning County Sheriff Ray T. Davis and emerge with a consensus that a battle over gambling is responsible for the gangland slaying of Vince DeNiro.

In its investigation into cheat spots for teenagers, The Vindicator reports that the Blue Crystal Tavern on State Street in Girard assumes the appearance of a teenage canteen on Wednesday and Friday nights, with illegal drinks and live music from a popular Youngstown combo.

1936: Sixty boys bring their homemade cars to the municipal golf course in preparation for the Soap Box Derby race down Gypsy Lane.

A plan for linking Oak Hill Avenue and W. Front Street by a bridge across the Mahoning River is discussed by the South Side Merchants and Civic Association and West Side Business Men’s Association with city officials.

Mrs. Anna Graham, 68, of W. Madison Avenue, dies of injuries suffered in a collision of two cars at Elm Street and Broadway that were bound for a funeral. Twelve others were injured.