Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2014. There are 133 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1833: Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States, is born in North Bend, Ohio.

1866: President Andrew Johnson formally declares the Civil War over, months after fighting had stopped.

1882: Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” has its premiere in Moscow.

1910: Forest fires sweep through parts of Idaho, Montana and Washington, killing at least 85 people and burning some 3 million acres.

1914: German forces occupy Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.

1940: During World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pays tribute to the Royal Air Force before the House of Commons, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

1953: The Soviet Union publicly acknowledges it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti- poverty measure.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Some Mahoning Valley schools are pushing pass-play policies that require students to maintain higher academic standards to be eligible for extracurricular activities.

Hundreds of angry fans demand refunds after a New Kids on the Block concert for which they bought tickets was abruptly cancelled less than a week before its Aug. 24 date.

1974: Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., vice president of the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp., is named a trustee of Youngstown State University, succeeding Raymond J. Wean Jr. of Warren..

Ezell Armour, Mahoning County welfare director, says the state has declared that back-to-school clothing is not an emergency item and an expected 1,000 applicants for such aid will be turned away.

The Brookfield Board of Education hires six new teachers: Dolores J. Gasparec, Brenda Logan, David Mischick, Mary Bebech and Mary O’Brien Hudson.

1964: Youngstown City Council refuses to provide $1,200 for preparation of a police promotional exam by Western Reserve University.

Niles Mayor Carmen DeChristofaro says his city is still interested in selling water to the new General Motors plant in Lordstown. GM officials initially chose Warren as its water supply, but the deal hasn’t been finalized.

The Internal Revenue Service reports that 70 people in 19 Ohio counties have bought $50 federal gambling stamps, including four in Trumbull County and two in Mahoning County .

1939: A 13-year-old Massillon girl is injured by a rock thrown at the car in which she was riding while leaving a meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hubbard. One man was arrested for creating a disturbance.

Fewer than two-thirds of the 146 candidates in Mahoning County’s August primaries file their required financial reports with the board of elections by the Aug. 18 deadline.

About 36 airplanes in the Ohi-Ohio Air Tour land at Barnard Airport, where they hear Youngstown Mayor Lionel Evans tell them that when they return in 1940, they will land at Youngstown Municipal Airport on “the finest, best equipped airport in the United States.