Years Ago

Today is Sunday, July 15, the 197th day of 2012. There are 169 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1870: Georgia becomes the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

1912: Britain’s National Insurance Act, which provides the British working class with its first contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment, goes into effect.

1964: Sen. Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona is nominated for president by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

2010: After 85 days, BP stops the flow of oil from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico using a 75-ton cap lowered onto the wellhead earlier in the week.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: A three-judge panel of Elwyn V. Jenkins, William G. Houser and Peter C. Economus sentences John J. Eley, 37, to death for gunning down a Brier Hill grocer during a robbery Aug. 26, 1986. The execution date is set for Jan. 15, 1988, but appeals are expected to delay that by years.

Michael E. Kelly and J.J. Cafaro, officials of the New Avanti Co., deny reports that the company will close its South Bend., Ind., plant and move all operations to Youngstown.

The executor of the estate of Joseph C. Bucik, 75, who was struck and killed by an unmarked police cruiser in Interstate 680 in May, files a $2 million lawsuit against the city and Youngstown Patrolman Langdon Riley.

1972: Four boys scramble into a ravine in Nebo Park in Struthers to rescue Phillip Democko, 8, who fell down the ravine and landed in a stream. Credited with saving the boy are Robert Horvath, 18; Rick Pastell, 18; Mark Matevich, 15, and Joe Calbrette, 17. Joseph Mogolick, a Struthers football coach, joined the effort and administered artificial respiration.

Patrolman James Visingardi, 21, who joined the Struthers police force two months earlier, is credited with saving the life of Brian Gerst, 1, who stopped breathing after the family car struck a pole in Mahoning Avenue.

1962: The Youngstown Metropolitan Area Development Citizens Committee says the city may have to slow down on some of its improvement projects in order to get maximum federal and state grants.

The Youngstown steel industry is suffering the worst summer slump in years, with 15,000 workers laid off and another 8,000 working short weeks.

1937: U.S. marshals are seeking four Youngstown area strikers, Mike Walker, Theodore Pictowski, Tony Crish and Dominic Scarpine, on charges of interfering with mail delivery at mills during the steel strike.

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