YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, August 3, the 215th day of 2015. There are 150 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.

1807: Former Vice President Aaron Burr goes on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Va., charged with treason. (He was acquitted less than a month later.)

1863: The first thoroughbred horse races take place at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

1914:Germany declares war on France at the onset of World War I.

1936: Jesse Owens of the United States wins the first of four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.

1943: Gen. George S. Patton slaps a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton later was ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.)

1949: The National Basketball Association is formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1993: The Senate votes 96-3 to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The 7th District Court of Appeals affirms a ruling by Mahoning Common Pleas Judge Charles Bannon that invalidated the Youngstown Civil Service Commission’s residency requirement for city employees. The city cannot fire workers who were on the payroll before 1988 for not living in the city. City voters amended the charter in 1988 to require residency.

State and local governments in Ohio have amassed a $21.8 billion debt, an increase of 134 percent over 10 years, a study by the Ohio Public Expenditure Council shows.

In a move that could stave off a liquidation of GF Corp., lawyers representing the company, laid-off employees, retirees and creditors have reached a deal to pay some of the retirees’ medical bills.

1975: Grants of $3 million for construction of a Mahoning County juvenile justice center and $11 million for capital improvements at Youngstown State University are included in the $823 million capital improvements bill passed by the General Assembly.

The Eastern Ohio Forensics Laboratory at YSU will do firearms examinations for area police departments.

John Billock, a Warren prosthetist-orthotist, has developed a myoelectric hand that is covered with a plastic skin to make it closely approximate a human limb.

1965: Lake Milton and Berlin Reservoir will be down by 5 to 6 feet by Labor Day as a result of a decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain a strong flow in the Mahoning River to support high steel operations.

The International Institute, a Red Feather agency, dedicates a new flag and flagpole in front of the institute.

Avanti Motor Corp. unveils a new Avanti II at its South Bend, Ind., plant. The car will be powered by a 327-cubic-inch Corvette engine and sell for $7,200.

1940: Declaring that the law limiting profit on national defense contracts is acting as a deterrent to the effective procurement of materials for defense, the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce adopts two resolutions opposing the law and orders copies sent to the Ohio congressional delegation in Washington.

The Aetna-Standard Engineering Co. in Youngstown is awarded a second contract for $1.7 million worth of anti-aircraft gun carriages for the war department.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, D-Youngstown, says he supports a military draft bill “which will impose the least hardship compatible with the needs of national defense.”