Years Ago

Today is Friday, Aug. 3, the 216th day of 2012. There are 150 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that takes him to the present-day Americas.

1921: Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refuses to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the “Black Sox” scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.

1936: Jesse Owens of the United States wins the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, taking the 100-meter sprint.

1949: The National Basketball Association is formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1972: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. (The U.S. unilaterally withdraws from the treaty in 2002.)

1981: U.S. air traffic controllers go on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey tells employees of the Sharon Steel Corp. that $3 million in state funds will be put up immediately to begin relining the company’s blast furnace at Farrell.

Judge Judith Christley, the first woman jurist on the 11th District Court of Appeals, says during an interview that there’s “no magic formula” to juggling the demands of jurist, wife, mother and teacher at Hiram College.

1972: Lt. Col. William J. Breckner Jr., an Air Force flier from Sebring, is reported taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese after his F4 Phantom fighter was shot down near Hanoi.

Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter throws out the first ball launching the Connie Mack Tournament at Pemberton Park.

The Youngstown-Warren Metropolitan Area drops from the Labor Department’s list of urban areas with 6 percent unemployment or higher. The area’s rate for June was 5.5 percent.

1962: Toxic gas in a septic tank kills a teenage boy and three men, including a fireman, who tried to rescue him from the 14-foot deep tank after his ladder broke at an East Liverpool home. Dead are Lawrence Miller, 17; Burton Richards, 44; James Sherwood, 51, and Richard Plumley, 23, the fireman.

July rainfall, which was 1.92 inches below normal, leaves the Berlin-Milton reservoirs at 12.4 feet below normal for this time of year.

1937: The Chamber of Commerce special tax committee praises Youngstown city government and schools for their efficiency, but criticizes Mahoning County government for relying too heavily on expensive deficiency bonds.

Catholic clergy, including 40 bishops, and laity from many states assemble in Detroit to welcome the Most Rev. Edward A. Mooney, formerly of Youngstown, who is installed as first archbishop of the newly created archdiocese of Detroit.