YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, July 16, the 198th day of 2016. There are 168 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1969: Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

1790: A site along the Potomac River is designated the permanent seat of the U.S. government; the area becomes Washington, D.C.

1935: The world’s first parking meters are installed in Oklahoma City.

1945: The U.S. explodes its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, N.M.

1970: Three Rivers Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates, officially opens as the Pirates lose to the Cincinnati Reds 3-2. (The stadium was demolished in 2001 after separate football and baseball stadiums were built.)

1979: Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq.

1981: Singer Harry Chapin is killed when his car is struck by a tractor-trailer on New York’s Long Island Expressway.

1999: John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, die when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunges into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

2015: A gunman unleashed a barrage of fire at a recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart in Chattanooga, Tenn., killing four Marines and a sailor before he was shot to death by police; authorities identified the gunman as Kuwaiti-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tenn.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. has been in touch with Youngstown native Michael Trikilis, a Hollywood film producer, about bringing Traficant’s life to the big screen.

Former Major League pitcher Dave Dravecky makes his first public appearance since having his left arm amputated. Dravecky introduced his book, “Comeback,” at a convention in Orlando, Fla.

State liquor stores in Girard, Salem and East Liverpool are on a list of 75 stores under consideration for closing or conversion to private agencies by the Ohio Department of Liquor Control.

1976: Charles Livingston and Sons Co., a major Youngstown women’s apparel firm, is sold to Manhattan Industries Inc., a New York-based company.

An arson burns out Courtney’s, a popular South Side eating and drinking establishment at 2658 Glenwood Ave.

The second class of 14 students at Youngstown State University begins orientation in the combined BS/MD program with Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

1966: The New Castle Airport accepts terms of a $163,125 federal grant for an airport improvement project. State and local shares of the project total $200,000.

Seven children donate $5 to the New Middletown Community Center, proceeds of a backyard carnival on Woodland Drive. They are Steffanie and Judy Telago, Karen and Alan Dobson, Lynn and Jimmy Heberling and Debbie Okrisky.

A heat wave that has kept temperatures at 100 degrees for a week shows signs of easing.

1941: Copies of South High School’s annual are ready for distribution. Printing of the 1,200 copies was delayed for a month because of the defense program. Karl Soller Jr. was editor in chief.

Speaking in favor of water-improvement projects in the Mahoning Valley, Alden Cummins, Carnegie general superintendent in Youngstown, says enough steel to build two 10,000 ton cruisers will be lost in a half-year if measures aren’t taken to keep water temperatures down in the Mahoning River.

Enthusiastic fans demand multiple encores from the Andrews Sisters, who boogie-woogied their way through new and old songs at the Palace Theater in downtown Youngstown.