Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Aug. 30, the 243rd day of 2012. There are 123 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1797: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, creator of “Frankenstein,” is born in London.

1861: Union Gen. John C. Fremont institutes martial law in Missouri and declares slaves there to be free. (However, Fremont’s emancipation order is countermanded by President Abraham Lincoln.)

1862: Confederate forces win victories against the Union at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va., and the Battle of Richmond in Kentucky.

1905: Ty Cobb makes his major-league debut as a player for the Detroit Tigers, hitting a double in his first at-bat in a game against the New York Highlanders. (The Tigers won, 5-3.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Youngstown State University trustees approve development of student housing in Wick Oval and Smoky Hollow.

Movie star Tom Cruise drives a 1986 Nissan 300 ZX for the Sharp Racing team in the Bill Benham National Memorial Races at the Nelson Ledges Road Course in Portage County.

Metropolitan Iriney Kovacevich, of Grayslake, Ill., head of the Serbian Free Diocese of the United States and Canada celebrates a pontifical liturgy at Old Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Austintown.

1972: Damage is estimated at between $25,000 and $35,000 in a fire that damages Christ Our King Roman Catholic Church on Tod Avenue in Warren.

Burke Lyden, chief engineer for Youngstown’s Division of Water, is suspended for four days without pay for “insolent disrespect of and insubordination to” Water Commissioner David A. O’Neil.

Advertisement: “Partridge Family” metal lunch box and vacuum bottle, $1.76 at Kmart.

1962: The 116th annual Canfield Fair opens with a ribbon cutting by Homer Schaeffer, president of the Mahoning County Agricultural Society, and an expectation of a quarter of a million fair visitors during its five-day run.

Akron voters approve a 1 percent income tax by a vote of 32,764 to 28,498, leaving Cleveland as the only major Ohio city without an income tax.

1937: Diesel motors are now uppermost in the mind of Charles F. Kettering, General Motors vice president and boss of research, for the largest manufacturing company in the world. During a visit to the Mahoning Valley, he says that GM is building diesels in increasing numbers.

Miss Vera Barger, formerly of Youngstown, and her sister, Esta, a Rayen School teacher, who have been traveling the Orient, are evacuated from Nanking, the State Department notifies local friends. They will soon board a steamer headed for home.