YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, July 21, the 202nd day of 2015. There are 163 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1861: During the Civil War, the first Battle of Bull Run is fought at Manassas, Va., resulting in a Confederate victory.

1925: The so-called “Monkey Trial” ends in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (The conviction later was overturned on a technicality.)

1944: American forces land on Guam during World War II, capturing it from the Japanese some three weeks later.

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominates Sen. Harry S. Truman to be vice president.

1949: The U.S. Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

1955: During a summit in Geneva, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presents his “open skies” proposal under which the U.S. and the Soviet Union would trade information on each other’s military facilities and allow aerial reconnaisance. (The Soviets rejected the proposal.)

1959: The NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, is christened by first lady Mamie Eisenhower at Camden, N.J.

1961: Capt. Virgil “Gus” Grissom becomes the second American to rocket into a suborbital pattern around the Earth, flying aboard the Liberty Bell 7.

1972: The Irish Republican Army carries out 22 bombings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing nine people and injuring 130 in what became known as “Bloody Friday.”

1980: Draft registration begins in the United States for 19- and 20-year-old men.

1990: A benefit concert takes place in Germany at the site of the fallen Berlin Wall; the concert, which drew some 200,000 people, was headlined by Roger Waters, a founder of Pink Floyd.

2005: The House votes to extend the USA Patriot Act.

2010: A triumphant President Barack Obama signs into law the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. lending and high-finance rules since the 1930s.

2014: President Barack Obama orders employment protection for gay and transgender employees who work for the federal government or for companies holding federal contracts, telling advocates at a White House signing ceremony he embraced the “irrefutable rightness of your cause.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties qualify for disaster-relief aid from recent flood damage after the Federal Emergency Management Agency extends disaster relief that was instituted in May for southern Ohio to cover damage farther north through July 15.

The Rev. George Neiman, a well-known community activist and pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church at 1110 Fifth Ave., announces his retirement after 33 years at the church. He is only the fifth pastor in the 109-year history of St. Paul’s.

Becky Rolland, 14, of Youngstown has a dream come true when she meets Danny Wood of the group New Kids on the Block at Blossom Music Center in a visit arranged by McDonald’s restaurants and Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.

1975: Bob Stoops, 35, a 1965 graduate of Youngstown State University who was close to former YSU football coach Rey Dempsey, resigns as an assistant coach, saying that after spring practice he concluded he “couldn’t be loyal to the new program” of Coach Bill Narduzzi.

The 32nd annual Youngstown Charity Horse Show concludes its five-day run at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

Mervyn Hollander of Burning Tree Lane, Liberty Township, is installed as president of the Girard-Liberty Rotary Club.

1965: Youngstown’s Youth Opportunity Center opens on West Indianola Avenue with O.J. Gabriel, retired superintendent of Struthers schools, as manager.

Columbiana Police Chief William McGuckin tells village council that increasing traffic volume may mean the village square on Main Street will have to be eliminated some day.

J. Monroe Shontz, former partner in Shontz & Myers Clothing Store in Sharon, dies in Sharon General Hospital at age 100.

1940: Congressman Michael J. Kirwan addresses 500 members and guests at the British War Relief Society’s benefit garden party at the Logan Road home of Mrs. Federigo Ravelli.

Salineville ends its five-day celebration of its 103rd anniversary with a parade with 50 Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia fire departments, bands, drum and bugle corps and marching units.

Seven Youngstown professional golfers qualify for the 36-hole Cleveland District PGA tournament at the Sleepy Hollow course: Jim McGunigal, Tony Joy, Al Alcroft, Johnny Malutic, Jack Miskell, Jack Thompson and Neil Crose.