YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, July 20, the 202nd day of 2016. There are 164 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1861: The Congress of the Confederate States convenes in Richmond, Va.

1871: British Columbia becomes a Canadian province.

1917: The World War I draft lottery goes into operation.

1923: Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa is assassinated by gunmen in Parral.

1954: The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into northern and southern countries.

1969: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon after reaching the surface in their Apollo 11 lunar module.

1976: America’s Viking 1 robot spacecraft makes a successful, first-ever landing on Mars.

1990: Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, one of the court’s most liberal voices, announces he is stepping down.

2012: Gunman James Holmes opens fire inside a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and wounding 70 others. (Holmes is serving a life prison sentence.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Youngstown State University’s acting president, Bernard Gillis, sends a letter to Gov. George Voinovich warning that if more cuts are made in state funding, the university will face “substantial layoffs.”

The Ohio Ballet performs in Courthouse Park in Warren as part of the Celebration on the Square.

Youngstown records its 38th homicide of the year. The body of David Mauzy, 31, was found in a field off West Earle Avenue on the city’s South Side.

1976: Salvage crews successfully pump more than 9,000 gallons for gasoline from a tanker that catapulted from the I-80 bridge into the Meander Reservoir. A U.S. EPA official estimated that less than 100 gallons of fuel leaked into the water.

A federal public works bill includes $35,000 for repairs to the Lake Milton dam. City engineer Edmund Salata said he had hoped that $50,000 would be provided.

Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter reaches an agreement with negotiators for city employee unions that would mean pay raises for city workers if the city receives $980,000 in federal public works money.

1966: National Guardsmen, including 283 from Youngstown, armed with machine guns, patrol the Hough area of Cleveland in the wake of rioting, looting and firebombing.

Irving L. Mansell, managing editor of The Vindicator, is one of 27 Westminster College alumni named to “Who’s Who in America.” Mansell is a 1929 graduate of Westminster.

The Liberty Local Board of Education adopts a tentative budget of $1.6 million for 1967.

1941: Tennis players from seven counties pray for better weather so that sectional tournaments in The Vindicator Public Parks tennis champions cantake place. Winners will be eligible for the coveted trip to Minneapolis for the “Battle of Championship.”

A three-way thrill show – a combined rodeo, circus and motor thrill program – will be featured for three days at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

A terrific cloudburst swells rivers and streams around Elkton nd Rogers to the “rampaging stage,” causing more than $100,000 in damage to bridges and highways in Columbiana County and isolates the village of Elkton for several hours.