YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 24, the 237th day of 2016. 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 die.

1572: The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Protestants at the hands of Catholics begins in Paris.

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.

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

1912: Congress passes a measure creating the Alaska Territory.

1932: Amelia Earhart embarks on a 19-hour flight from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, making her the first woman to fly solo, non-stop, from coast to coast.

1949: The North Atlantic Treaty came into force.

1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.

1981: Mark David Chapman is sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon. (Chapman remains imprisoned.)

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

2006: The International Astronomical Union declares that Pluto is no longer a full-fledged planet.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Dr. Genevra Kornbluth, an assistant professor of art at Youngstown State University, returns from Moscow and talks about her fear during a taxi ride to the airport after a bloodless coup turned violent.

George Jacobs is credited with saving his Warren Township neighbor Jason Grubbs from serious injury or death after gasoline from a car Grubbs was working on ignited. Jacobs threw Grubbs to the ground and helped him smother the flames.

Dr. George Beelen, chairman of the Youngstown State University history department, edits “Common Threads in a Diverse World,” a book of essays by YSU professors and local clergy members on religious diversity.

1976: Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Clyde Osborne orders Sheriff Ray T. Davis to conduct weekly searches for weapons and generally beef up security at the County Jail. Osborne had found Davis guilty of contempt in April for shoddy jail operations.

Jeffrey Robb, 22, of Sharon, a tree trimmer for J & T Tree Trimming Co., dies of injuries suffered when he fell while trimming a tree on Viola Avenue in Hubbard.

A Lisbon mother, Dianne Mitchell, 28, and her daughter, Linda Stockdale, 9, both of Lisbon, die in a fire that destroys a mobile home they were staying in while visiting Highlandtown.

1966: Max Harshman, president of Imperial Wholesalers Inc., says the store on Indianola Avenue that was burned out will likely be rebuilt.

Mrs. Robert Gorman, former president of Children’s Theater in Youngstown, and Mrs. James Skelding, local director, will speak at the American Educational Theater Association’s Children’s Theater Conference in Tempe, Ariz.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Sidney Rigelhaupt sentences Ronald Carabbia to six months in jail on a rackets charge, telling the Struthers man that he doesn’t believe he has retired from gambling.

1941: A small capsule containing radium worth between $4,000 and $5,000 is accidentally thrown into a sewer at South Side Hospital. A screen was placed on the sewer’s outlet at Pike Street to try to recover it.

Republic Steel Corp. will build a new blast furnace and a new open hearth in Youngstown at a cost of $12 million.

At the annual outing of Clan MacDonald at Idora Park, Youngstowners of Scottish descent are urged to carry the “V” for Victory with them at all times. Money raised at the outing will go to British War Relief.