YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, August 7, the 219th day of 2015. There are 146 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1782: Gen. George Washington creates the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and noncommissioned officers.

1789: The U.S. War Department is established by Congress.

1814: Pope Pius VII issues a bull restoring the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, four decades after the order had been suppressed by Pope Clement XIV.

1882: The famous feud between the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky erupts into full-scale violence.

1927: The already-opened Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, is officially dedicated.

1942: U.S. and other allied forces land at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. (Japanese forces abandoned the island the following February.)

1959: The United States launches the Explorer 6 satellite, which sends back images of Earth.

1964: Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1974: French stuntman Philippe Petit repeatedly walks a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.

1989: A plane carrying U.S. Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14 others disappears over Ethiopia. (The wreckage of the plane was found six days later; there were no survivors.)

1990: President George H.W. Bush orders U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq.

1998: Terrorist bombs at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill 224 people, including 12 Americans.

2000: Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore selects Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate; Lieberman becomes the first Jewish candidate on a major party’s presidential ticket.

2005: ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings dies in New York at age 67.

2010: Elena Kagan is sworn in as the 112th justice and fourth woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: James Ferraro, WRTA executive director, says ridership has declined by as much as 10 percent each month since spring after across-the-board fair increases.

U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant has inserted $8 million in bridge and water projects for the Mahoning Valley in a House spending bill and warns that if any member attempts to strip those projects from the bill, he will respond by trying to kill their projects.

The Mahoning Valley Home Builders Association unveils its 1990 “Dream Home” at 2145 Brittainy Oaks Drive in Howland, which will be open to the public over the weekend.

1975: Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter proposes a 7.5 percent hike in water rates for city residents and 20 percent for customers in the unincorporated areas to meet the 42 percent increase for bulk water purchases imposed by the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

Speaking at the convention of Slovak Catholic Sokols in Youngstown, Canadian industrialist Stephen B. Roman, president of the Slovak World Fraternal Congress, warns that the recent signing of the Helsinki Pact by 35 nations, including the U.S. and Russia, one day will lead to World War III.

Westlake’s Crossing will be closed for four weeks while Erie-Lackawanna Railroad crews repair damage from a fiery train derailment that killed one woman.

1965: Some 175 staff doctors, former interns and residents and local medical students meet to observe annual Ex-Intern-Resident Day at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

A two-year-old Union Township child and her 11-year-old aunt are killed when struck by a car while crossing old Route 422 at the crest of a hill in New Castle, Pa. Jodie Lynn Starkey was pronounced dead at the scene. Her aunt, Cheryl Elaine Matthews, died in South Side Hospital.

Main Construction Co.’s entry in the 1965 Parade of Homes at 3929 S. Schenley has solid vinyl siding, which has color that goes all the way through and never needs painting.

1940: Victor Shutrump of the Atlas Engineering Co. says work will continue on 14-hour shifts until the resurfacing of Mahoning Avenue east of the bridge is completed.

In recognition of his longtime membership, Frank Agnew is selected to break ground for the new Boardman Methodist Church.

The Akron Yankees overpower the Youngstown Browns, 7-4, at Idora Park to increase their lead in the Mid-Atlantic standings.

Disabled American Veterans of the World War donate an $800 “fever machine” used in the treatment of nervous and organic disorders to South Side Hospital.