Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, July 3, the 185th day of 2012. There are 181 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: Gen. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.

1863: The three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ends in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreat.

1898: The U.S. Navy defeats a Spanish fleet outside Santiago Bay in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1950: The first carrier strikes of the Korean War take place as the USS Valley Forge and the HMS Triumph send fighter planes against North Korean targets.

1962: French President Charles de Gaulle signs an agreement recognizing Algeria as an independent state after 132 years of French rule.

1971: Singer Jim Morrison of The Doors dies in Paris at age 27.

1979: Dan White, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, is sentenced to 7 years, 8 months in prison. (He serves 5 years.)

1987: British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand become the first hot-air balloon travelers to cross the Atlantic, jumping into the sea as their craft goes down off the Scottish coast.

1992: The first U.S. Air Force C-130 from Operation Provide Promise arrives in the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Four people are arrested and fireworks valued at as much as $500,000 are confiscated in a raid on what was described as the state’s largest raid of an illegal fireworks business.

Dr. Terry Buss, director of Youngstown State University’s Center for Urban Studies, is resigning to take a faculty position at the University of Akron.

1972: Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputies raid Paul’s Bait Shop in Lake Milton and confiscate firecrackers valued at $3,700.

General Motors announces a recall of 500,000 Lordstown-made Chevrolet Vegas after a defect in the rear axle that could cause the wheels to lock is reported in 59 cars.

Catherine Murphy, director of nursing at North Side Hospital, has one of the nine winning tickets in the Irish Sweepstakes, making her $130,000 richer.

Waters at three Lake Erie beaches, Avon Lake, Rocky River and White City, are declared unsafe for swimming due to bacteria levels.

1962: Nicholas P. Bernard, former state senator and former city finance director, is named to the Democratic vacancy on the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

A Georgia truck driver’s rig is destroyed by fire after an attendant at a Canfield service station mistakenly filled the fuel tank with diesel fuel rather than gasoline. After the tank was drained and refilled with gasoline, the engine backfired and the truck caught fire.

1937: Joseph Klempay, 72, of Hubbard Road is struck and killed by a fast moving car at W. Federal Street and Ardale Avenue, becoming the city’s 30th traffic fatality of the year.

A CIO purge begins in the Mahoning Valley aimed at Communist influences in the labor movement. Among those removed from leadership positions in the steel strike were Gus Hall, Robert Burke, a former Columbia University student, and John Stevenson.

The Palace and State theaters in Youngstown decide not to show newsreel footage provided by Paramount News that showed the deadly Memorial Day riot at the Republic Steel plant in East Chicago.