YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, July 3, the 185th day of 2016. There are 181 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: Gen. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.

1863: The three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ends in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops fail to breach Union positions during an assault known as Pickett’s Charge.

1890: Idaho becomes the 43rd state of the Union.

1913: During a 50th anniversary reunion at Gettysburg, Pa., Civil War veterans re-enact Pickett’s Charge, which ends with embraces and handshakes between the former enemies.

1938: President Franklin D. Roosevelt marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg by dedicating the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.

1944: During World War II, Soviet forces recapture Minsk from the Germans.

1950: The first carrier strikes of the Korean War take place as the USS Valley Forge and the HMS Triumph send fighter planes against North Korean targets.

1962: French President Charles de Gaulle signs an agreement recognizing Algeria as an independent state after 132 years of French rule.

1971: Singer Jim Morrison of The Doors dies in Paris at age 27.

1976: Israel launches its daring mission to rescue 106 passengers and Air France crew members being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers; the commandos succeed in rescuing all but four of the hostages.

1986: President Ronald Reagan presides over a gala ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

Singer-actor Rudy Vallee dies at his North Hollywood home at age 84.

1988: The USS Vincennes shoots down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

1996: Russians go to the polls to re-elect Boris Yeltsin president over his Communist challenger, Gennady Zyuganov, in a runoff.

A blaze destroys a fireworks store in Scottown, Ohio, filled with Fourth of July shoppers, killing nine people and injuring 11.

2006: A subway train derails in Valencia, Spain, killing 43 people.

Annika Sorenstam ends 10 years of frustration by winning the U.S. Women’s Open, her 10th major championship.

2011: A chartered fishing boat, the Erik, sinks in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, leaving one Northern California man dead and seven missing.

2015: The Solar Impulse 2, a plane powered by the sun’s rays, lands in Hawaii after pilot Andre Borschberg makes a record-breaking five-day journey across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: General Motors announces plans to add a third shift at the Lords- town plant, boosting its annual capacity for the hot-selling J-Car from 380,000 a year to 480,000.

Gov. George Voinovich is bringing key department heads to Youngstown for a one-day conference during which chambers of commerce from Youngstown and Warren are expected to present a regional economic development proposal for the Mahoning Valley.

More than 6,200 fans attend a Youngstown Pride game at Beeghly Center that honored Operation Desert Storm veterans. The Pride fell to the Saskatchewan Storm, 113-111.

1976: Gov. James A. Rhodes vetoes a bill that would provide free breakfasts and lunches to eligible needy pupils in public schools, saying the measure was not funded, and many schools would be unable to comply with its provisions.

Campbell opens the Bicentennial weekend with a parade of 90 units, led by U.S. Rep. Charles J. Carney.

Trumbull County sheriff’s detective Ronald Baldine buys $100 worth of fireworks at a Vienna home, as the department cracks down on illegal fireworks sales over the Bicentennial weekend.

1966: Nearly 90 boys between the age of 11 and 15 are registered for Youngstown’s annual Soap Box Derby on Midlothian Boulevard, between South Avenue and Park Road.

Articles of incorporation are granted to the newly formed Mahoning County Community Improvement Corp., designed to develop commercial, industrial, educational and cultural growth in the county.

1941: Youngstown plans a grand and glorious Fourth of July. Events include: a Mahoning County American Legion post celebration at Canfield Fairgrounds and fireworks at Poland Village athletic field, Idora Park and Craig Beach.

The Struthers street department’s 10-ton roller, its reverse gear broken, rolls over an embankment on Wetmore Drive. It then ends up in Yellow Creek Park.

Three new interns and four new resident physicians join the staff of St. Elizabeth Hospital. They are Drs. Vincent G. Herman, Sanford Kronenberg, Peter Marcuse, J.F. Osborne, Edward Pichette, John Richard Ross and Donald J. Birmingham.