YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, July 28, the 210th day of 2016. There are 156 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1540: King Henry VIII’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, is executed, the same day Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1655: French dramatist and novelist Cyrano de Bergerac, the inspiration for a play by Edmond Rostand, dies in Paris at age 36.

1794: Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, is sent to the guillotine.

1821: Peru declares its independence from Spain.

1866: British children’s author Beatrix Potter is born in London.

1914: World War I begins as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

1945: A U.S. Army bomber crashes into the 79th floor of New York’s Empire State Building, killing 14 people.

1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he is increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 “almost immediately.”

1976: An earthquake devastates northern China, killing at least 242,000 people, according to an official estimate.

1995: A jury in Union, S.C., rejects the death penalty for Susan Smith, sentencing her to life in prison for drowning her two young sons (Smith will be eligible for parole in 2024).

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: The proposed relocation of U.S. Route 62 from Salem to Alliance, a topic of discussion for more than 20 years, hits another snag. Construction on the $39 million project was to begin in 1993 but won’t because a new route will have to be found around 60 acres of wetlands.

Youngstown registers its 40th and 41st homicides of the year in two weekend shootings.

Friends of the Western Reserve Greenway Trail are working to turn a 40-mile stretch of abandoned Penn Central Railroad track between Warren and Ashtabula into a biking and hiking path.

1976: H. James English, manager of the East Ohio Gas Co.’s Youngstown Division, says the Federal Power Commission’s decision to nearly triple the price ceiling on some natural gas will mean that the company will be able to get more gas to supply customers’ urgent need.

The Regional Growth Foundation will be merged into the Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce, says Kenneth F. McMahon, chamber president, and Marshall P. Tannehill, president of the foundation.

Kimble Arnold, 19, of Dellroy is electrocuted while working at an oil and gas drilling site above Diehl Road off state Route 45 in Ellsworth Township.

1966: A strike by 370 Youngstown sanitation, water and street department workers ends after the city agrees to increase pay by 10 percent over the next 17 months.

Peter Alexander of Haber Furniture is chosen president of the Retail Credit Association at its annual picnic on the General Fireproofing grounds.

Columbiana County will make a second try to obtain its own charter from the Ohio Board of Regents, which approved a charter for a Mahoning County community college and suggested that Columbiana County work with Mahoning.

Ralph L. Kline, the late former business editor of the Youngstown Telegram, leaves half of his estate of $500,000 to Mount Union College.

1941: Morning showers bring some relief to Mahoning County from a stretch of oppressive heat, during which the mercury reached 101 degrees.

Mahoning Country Club’s Class A team wins the country club division championship of the Youngstown Amateur Golf Association, defeating Southern Hills. Christy Deibel and Frank Kovach set the pace.

Youngtown Municipal Judge Peter Mulholland invalidates 138 tickets in July, despite a ruling by the city law department that municipal judges cannot “fix” tickets.