Years Ago

Today is Friday, July 20, the 202nd day of 2012. There are 164 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1861: The Congress of the Confederate States convenes in Richmond, Va.

1942: The first detachment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps — later known as WACs — begins basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

1944: An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb fails as the explosion at Hitler’s Rastenburg headquarters only wounded the Nazi leader.

1951: Jordan’s King Abdullah I is assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman.

1954: The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into northern and southern entities.

1969: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon after reaching the surface in their Apollo 11 lunar module.

1976: America’s Viking 1 robot spacecraft makes a successful, first-ever landing on Mars.

1982: Irish Republican Army bombs explode in two London parks, killing eight British soldiers, along with seven horses belonging to the Queen’s Household Cavalry.

1988: Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis receives the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Atlanta.

1990: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, one of the court’s most liberal voices, announces he is stepping down.

Vindicator files

1987: The Mahoning County prosecutor’s office launches an investigation into findings by the state auditor’s office that some county employees may have illegally received welfare benefits.

U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. says Mahoning Sparkle Markets Inc. rejected a last-ditch contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers union that would have kept 10 supermarkets in the Mahoning Valley open.

Poland Village officials send out notices to 12 businesses warning that unless they “spruce up” their garbage receptacles they will be hauled into Mayor’s Court.

1972: The heat wave drives 20,000 people to Youngstown’s six city pools over three days.

John Fitzgerald, 20, of Jefferson Street, Youngstown is in fair condition in Cleveland Clinic Hospital after undergoing a kidney transplant. His brother, David, donated the organ.

Poland Police Chief William Chase credits Tommy Wanamaker, 12, with preventing a serious house fire after he spotted smoke coming from a neighbor’s home and called the fire department.

1962: Reiad Chikhani, 18 is fighting for his life in South Side Hospital after being shot while thwarting a holdup at the R&R Drive In at 299 Glenwood Ave. The restaurant is owned by his mother.

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will submit a proposed budget of $1.2 million to the county budget commission, an increase of $70,792 over 1962.

Unable to satisfy demands of the city law department, downtown Youngstown merchants drop plans for a carnival.

1937: Ohio Gov. Martin L. Davey asks Gov. Leslie A. Miller to approve the extradition from Wyoming of Joe Orawiec, who is wanted in Warren on charges in steel strike bombings June 23 and 24.

Patients at the Mahoning County Tuberculosis Sanatorium complain that smoke from the sanatorium’s smokestack is aggravating the condition of patients, but county commissioner says there is no money to make repairs.

Mahoning County Relief Director I.L. Feuer says the WPA rolls in the county are in for another series of cuts. At 3,127 workers, the rolls are already 40 percent below a year earlier.