Years Ago

Today is Monday, July 2, the 184th day of 2012. There are 182 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1812: Connecticut Gov. Roger Griswold declares his state’s militia would not serve in the war against Britain, reflecting New Englanders’ opposition to the conflict.

1881: President James A. Garfield is shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield dies the following September. (Guiteau is hanged in June 1882.)

1937: Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight along the equator.

1961: Author Ernest Hemingway shoots himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

1962: The first Walmart store (called “Wal-Mart Discount City”) is opened in Rogers, Ark., by Sam Walton and his brother, James.

1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Phar-Mor Inc., a national discount pharmacy chain, will move its new headquarters to downtown Youngstown, bringing 135 employees to the former Strouss department store building.

A $5,000 bonus paid to the Canfield Joint Recreational Board’s director for a job well done has been returned after propriety of the special payment was questioned by Canfield city council, township trustees and the board of education.

1972: Youngstown Park Superintendent Ed Finamore tells City Council that the Lake Milton dam has been judged safe, with “no immediate cause for concern or alarm.”

1962: Police are seeking a motive in the bombing death of gangster William “Billy” Naples of 505 Carlotta Drive.

Mr. and Mrs. Carl Knapp of Sharpsville are killed when their car goes through a stop sign at Routes 14 and 62 near Canfield and is rammed by a tractor trailer carrying a shipment of new cars.

1937: About 500 National Guardsmen are being shifted from the Youngstown district, but 5,000 remain.

The East Ohio Gas Co. asks the Ohio Utilities Commission for permission to increase its gas rates in Youngstown so it would collect $264,000 more per year from residential and commercial consumers.