Years Ago

Today is Sunday, July 1, the 183rd day of 2012. There are 183 days left in the year. This is Canada Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs the first Pacific Railroad Act “to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean.”

1863: The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in a Union victory, begins in Pennsylvania.

1910: Chicago’s original Comiskey Park holds its opening day under the name White Sox Park. (The home team loses to the St. Louis Browns, 2-0.)

1942: The First Battle of El Alamein begins during World War II.

Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra and vocalist Frank Sinatra record “There Are Such Things” in New York for Victor Records.

1946: The United States explodes a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1961: Diana, the princess of Wales, is born in Sandringham, England. (She dies in a 1997 car crash in Paris at age 36.)

1962: The African nations of Burundi and Rwanda become independent of Belgium.

1980: “O Canada” is proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.

1987: President Ronald Reagan nominates federal appeals court judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court, setting off a tempestuous confirmation process that ends with Bork’s rejection by the Senate.

1991: President George H.W. Bush nominates federal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

Actor Michael Landon, 54, dies in Malibu, Calif.

2004: Actor Marlon Brando dies in Los Angeles at age 80.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Paul H. Luce, former principal of Chaney High School and president of Planned Parenthood of the Mahoning Valley, dies in Northside Hospital at the age of 83.

Leaking gas is suspected in an explosion that destroyed a home at 526 E. Dewey, killing Ann Pacula, who had lived there for about 40 years.

An Ohio House committee votes to cap utility company liability for a mishap at a nuclear power plant at $6.8 billion.

1972: The FBI and Youngstown police are seeking a gunman who escaped with about $4,500 from the downtown branch of Union National Bank.

About 2,000 workers at Sharon Steel Corp. walk off their jobs over working conditions and the suspension of workers who refused assignments they deemed hazardous.

The Western Reserve Transit Authority will institute Sunday service between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

1962: Carl “Shorty” Beighley, a 42-year-old Salem bachelor who lives in one rented room and works 12 to 15 hours a day as a cab driver, wins $140,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes.

A new labor contract covering some 50,000 Youngstown district workers goes into effect containing some wage increases, but with most of the benefits coming through vacation time and fringes.

The FBI charges a 34-year-old Hinckley, Ohio, man with the March 2, 1961, armed robbery of the People’s Branch Bank in New Castle, Pa., in which $19,382 was taken.

D.L. Metzger, principal of Lowellville High School for 33 years, retires, ending a 42-year career in education.

1937: Gus Hall, alleged ringleader of a gang of suspected bombers, surrenders to Warren police and is held in City Jail, unable to post $50,000 bond.

Ten Youngstown yardmasters file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging Republic Steel Corp. with firing them without cause when they attempted to return to work. They are William D. Cregan, Dewey C. Nord, A.J. Sewickly, John O’Neill, Howard Newmyer, William McGrath, Frank Renton, Paul Hanni and H.H. Hancock.

R.D. George, superintendent of the Fairmount Children’s Home, tells Columbiana County commissioners that 22 percent of the placements in the home are attributed to abandonment of the children; 45 of them by their fathers and 25 of them by their mothers.