YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, August 24, the 236th day of 2015. There are 129 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

A.D. 79: Long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash; an estimated 20,000 people died.

1814: During the War of 1812, British forces invade Washington, D.C., setting fire to the Capitol (which was still under construction) and the White House, as well as other public buildings.

1821: The Treaty of Cordoba is signed, granting independence to Mexico from Spanish rule.

1932: Amelia Earhart embarks on a 19-hour flight from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., making her the first woman to fly solo, nonstop, coast to coast.

1949: The North Atlantic Treaty comes into force.

1964: The first Roman Catholic Mass celebrated in English takes place at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

1989: Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti bans Pete Rose from the game for betting on his own team.

1992: Hurricane Andrew smashes into Florida, causing $30 billion in damage; 43 U.S. deaths were blamed on the storm.

vindicator files

1990: ASC Inc., the company that turns Lords-town-built Pontiac Sunbirds into convertibles, tells its employees that it will add Chevrolet Cavalier convertibles to its product line.

Dr. David R. Decker, a Maine entrepreneur with an academic background, is named Youngstown State University’s new Monus professor of entrepreneurship.

GF Corp. retirees and Solidarity USA members are angry and disappointed when U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant fails to show for a scheduled appearance at a meeting in Hubbard. Traficant’s office says there was a scheduling conflict. Solidarity member Ed Mann suggests Traficant did not want to answer a list of specific questions that had been sent to Traficant.

1975: Nguyen Thuc, 25, his 45-year-old mother, five brothers and two sisters arrive at the Youngstown Municipal Airport, the first family of South Vietnam refugees welcomed to the area. They will live with the Paul Featsent family in Hubbard.

The Canfield Fair, which first took place when America was only 70 years old, will honor the nation’s bicentennial with a theme of “A Heritage We Share” for its 129th annual fair.

Rodney Chisholm is installed as president of the Ohio Grotto Association during ceremonies at the three-day convention in Dayton. Chisholm, a 1948 graduate of Ohio State University, is a regional vice president of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Ohio and a 5th Ward Republican councilman in Youngstown.

1965: Girard city auditor Dorothy Gorenc says police, firemen and other municipal employees will receive belated paychecks from a $38,000 loan approved by city council, and there will be enough to pay them in September. Whether there will be money to pay them in October is a question.

U.S. District Judge Frank Battisti finds three brothers of slain racketeer Vince DeNiro guilty of tax evasion in connection with federal taxes on DeNiro’s $391,000 estate.

1940: Youngstown’s newest traffic artery, the Marshall Street Bridge, opens to traffic, providing a new avenue from the South and West sides.

The Coast Guard is searching for the body of William Timm Jr., 19, of Youngstown, who disappeared while floating in an inner tube about 100 feet off the shore of Lake Erie.

Mahoning County’s quota of 4,100 Works Progress Administration workers will remain until at least Oct. 1, says Fred A. Wagner, chairman of the Mahoning County commissioners.