YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, July 8, the 190th day of 2016. There are 176 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1663: King Charles II of England grants a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.

1776: Col. John Nixon gives the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

1889: The Wall Street Journal is first published.

1891: Warren G. Harding marries Florence Kling DeWolfe in Marion, Ohio.

1907: Florenz Ziegfeld stages his first “Follies,” on the roof of the New York Theater.

1947: An object crashes onto a ranch in Roswell, N.M.; a local newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, reports that the nearby U.S. Army Air Field had recovered a “flying saucer,” but officials said it was actually a weather balloon. To this day, however, there are those who believe what fell to Earth was an alien spaceship that carried extra-terrestrial beings.

1950: President Harry S. Truman names Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.

1975: President Gerald R. Ford announces he will seek a second term of office.

2000: Venus Williams beats Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first black female champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957-58.

2011: Former first lady Betty Ford dies in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 93.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Martin J. O’Connell, executive director of the Western Reserve Building Trades Council and labor liaison for U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant, accuses Youngstown Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro of keeping the unions out of negotiations for construction of a $29 million Toys “R” Us warehouse.

Mary and Foster Benton of School Street, Hubbard, say they have been harassed with threatening telephone calls after they objected to the city setting off fireworks on the Fourth of July at the municipal building, near their home. The fireworks were moved to Reed Middle School.

1976: Dr. Robert L. Zorn, director of administrative services for the Mahoning County Board of Education, is appointed the new superintendent of the Poland Local School District.

Strouss announces that it will add 12,000 square feet to its department store in the Liberty Plaza.

Plans for local mass immunizations against swine flu are moving ahead in Mahoning County despite uncertainties about possible malpractice suits.

1966: United Airlines service at Youngstown Municipal Airport is halted by a nationwide mechanics strike after only one flight.

The School of Cytotechnology of the Youngstown Hospital Association, in existence since 1958, is approved by the American Medical Association. A grant from the U.S. Public Health Service defrays cost of tuition, equipment and supplies.

1941: Pots and pans donated by Youngstown housewives in the national defense aluminum collection will be deposited at the foot of the Man on the Monument in Central Square.

Victor Marino of Roslyn Drive, Youngstown, all-around athlete at Ohio State University, leaves to join the Navy as a physical-education director after being selected by Gene Tunney, former boxing champion.

Nearly 5,000 youngsters arrive at City Hall, some as early as 7:30 a.m., to get their 25-cent bicycle tags.