Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, June 19, the 171st day of 2012. There are 195 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1862: Congress passes, and President Abraham Lincoln signs, a measure abolishing slavery in U.S. territories.

1865: Union troops commanded by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrive in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War is over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas are free.

1910: The first-ever Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Wash. (The idea for the observance is credited to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd.)

1934: The Federal Communications Commission is created; it replaces the Federal Radio Commission.

1937: The city of Bilbao falls to the Nationalist Army during the Spanish Civil War.

1952: The celebrity-panel game show “I’ve Got A Secret” makes its debut on CBS-TV with Garry Moore as host.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Mahoning County ranks second in underweight births, fifth in out-of-wedlock births, and 10th in dependence on public assistance among Ohio’s 88 counties.

Greyhound Lines Inc. reaches an agreement to take over the financially ailing Trailways Corp. in an $80 million deal that would leave the nation with one national intercity bus company.

1972: Parachutist Roy Johnson of Warren jumps out of an airplane at 7,500 feet over Tahlequah, Okla., and executes six maneuvers in 68 seconds to set a world record.

An arson fire destroys the Fleming Lounge at 3314 Mahoning Ave., severely burning the tavern operator, Edward Bondzak, 23, of Hubbard.

Alberto Reardon, whose career in music in the Mahoning Valley spanned three-quarters of a century, dies in his Poland home after a long illness. He was 92.

1962: Bishops, priests, nuns and Laity fill St. Columba cathedral as Bishop Emmet M. Walsh offers a pontifical Mass of thanksgiving to mark his 35 years as a bishop.

Members of both political parties from all sections of the country offer their support for U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan’s proposal to build a Lake Erie-to-Ohio River canal.

A 90-degree heat wave brings out a record 9,904 swimmers for opening day of Youngstown city pools.

1937: Pennsylvania Gov. George H. Earle declares martial law in Johnstown, Pa., and orders the Bethlehem Steel mill closed, over the objection of the company president, Eugene G. Grace.

Leaders of the Citizens Conciliation Council in Youngstown, many of them clergymen, call for a “peace program” between strikers and companies.

A strike at the Niles Fire Brick plant is settled when company officials and union leaders sign an agreement.