Years Ago

Today is Friday, July 27, the 209th day of 2012. There are 157 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: President George Washington signs a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.

1909: During the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, Orville Wright flies himself and Lt. Frank Lahm above Fort Myer, Va., for one hour and 12 minutes.

1921: Canadian researcher Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, succeed in isolating the hormone insulin at the University of Toronto.

1942: During World War II, the First Battle of El Alamein in Egypt ends in a draw as Allied forces stall the progress of Axis invaders.

1953: The Korean War armistice is signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting.

1960: Vice President Richard M. Nixon is nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican national convention in Chicago.

1974: The House Judiciary Committee votes 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

1996: Terror strikes the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleads guilty to the bombing.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Frank Kenley cancels the final two shows of the season for the Warren Star Theater at Packard Music Hall. Pat Boone and Anita Bryant were scheduled for a week and Bobby Vinton was to be the season-ending performer.

John Demjanjuk, the retired Ohio autoworker accused of being a Nazi guard, “Ivan the Terrible,” testifies to an Israeli court in Jerusalem that he had never been at the Treblinka death camp.

1972: U.S. Sens. Robert Taft and William B. Saxbe announce a grant of $1.8 million to the Youngstown for the second year of its Model Cities Program.

An arson fire, the 48th in Youngstown in 1962, hits the Moulin Rouge at 217 Fifth Avenue. Damage is estimated at $300.

The Youngstown Board of Education says it will abide by a ruling of the State Board of Education that Coitsville students must attend Youngstown city schools. A group of Coitsville parents had asked the city school district to consider their appeal of the state’s ruling.

1962: Columbiana County records its 20th traffic fatality of 1962 with the death of David Keith Eastham, 15, of Wellsville, who died of injuries suffered in an auto accident July 17.

An attorney representing commuters challenges figures submitted by the Pennsylvania & Lake Erie Railroad to support its request to halt service on two trains between Pittsburgh and Youngstown.

1937: Mike Bukovich, 51, is treated for a stab wound he received from a man with whom he argued over the CIO in Poland Avenue. Police reports did not say which man favored the CIO.

The Youngstown Chamber of Commerce calls for cooperation among local, state and federal authorities to correct stream pollution and to establish flood control.

Billy Conn, young Pittsburgh middleweight who has won $14,850 in his last five fights, will take on Ralph Chong in a 10-round scrap in Youngstown Aug. 3.