YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, July 31, the 213th day of 2016. There are 153 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1715: A fleet of Spanish ships carrying gold, silver and jewelry sinks during a hurricane off the east Florida coast; of some 2,500 crew members, more than 1,000 die.

1777: The Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, is made a major-general in the American Continental Army.

1930: The radio character “The Shadow” makes his debut as narrator of the “Detective Story Hour” on CBS Radio.

1933: The radio series “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy,” makes its debut on CBS radio station WBBM in Chicago.

1942: Oxfam International, which has its beginnings as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, is founded in England.

1954: Pakistan’s K2 is conquered as two members of an Italian expedition, Achille Compagnoni, reach the summit.

1964: The American space probe Ranger 7 reaches the moon, transmitting pictures back to Earth before impacting the lunar surface.

1972: Democratic vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdraws from the ticket with George McGovern after disclosures that Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment.

1973: Delta Air Lines Flight 723, a DC-9, crashes while trying to land at Boston’s Logan International Airport, killing all 89 people on board

1989: A pro-Iranian group in Lebanon releases a grisly videotape showing the body of American hostage William R. Higgins, a Marine lieutenant-colonel, dangling from a rope.

1991: President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.

2006: Cuban President Fidel Castro cedes provisional power to his brother, Raul, after gastrointestinal surgery.

2011: Ending a stalemate, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announce an agreement on emergency legislation to avert the nation’s first-ever financial default.

Yani Tseng wins the Women’s British Open for the second straight year, beating Brittany Lang by four strokes.

Florida hands the Atlanta Braves their 10,000th loss in franchise history; with the 3-1 loss, the Braves become the second team in big league history with 10,000 losses (the Phillies reached that mark in 2007).

2015: A firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma kills 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh and his parents; Amiram Ben-Uliel, a Jewish settler, has been charged with murder.

Beijing is awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to become the first city to host both the winter and summer games.

Professional wrestler-turned-actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, 61, dies in Hollywood.

Former U.S. senator and Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard S. Schweiker, 89, died in Pomona, N.J.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Ohio Attorney General Lee I. Fisher would “invoke the wrath” of local Democrats if he fires or transfers Alan Kretzer from his position as special counsel for Youngstown State University, county Democratic Party Chairman Don L. Hanni Jr. warns.

The sponsors of the Bavarian Fun Fest in Sharon say attendance may top 100,000 for the first time in the fest’s 17-year history.

The Ohio Supreme Court rules that Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Peter C. Economus can preside over the trial of a Youngstown woman charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 3-month-old child who died of blunt-force trauma while in the woman’s care. Her attorney, Gerald Ingram, had claimed Economus had prejudged the case because he refused to agree to a pretrial deal that would have resulted in her being released on shock probation.

1976: After two court injunctions bar the city of Warren from instituting a four-day work week for city employees, layoff notices are delivered to 37 firemen and 41 police officers. “It appears the employees prefer the layoffs to a four-day week,” says Mayor Arthur Richards.

A former Youngstown man, Keith R. Harris, 19, who was appearing in the popular Broadway show “The Wiz,” and his roommate are found shot to death in their Manhattan apartment in what New York police have classified as a murder-suicide.

At the Kenley Players in Warren: Ricardo Montalban in the romantic comedy, “Accent on Youth.”

1966: A renewed drive is launched to establish a Kent State University regional campus in Warren, writes Vindicator Reporter James H. Grohl.

Donald Glass, manager of Youngstown Municipal Airport, predicts the airport will become a site for new industrial plants.

LeRoy Sweed, office manager for the Ohio Water Service Co., retires after 48 years with the company. He started as a meter reader in 1919, a month before his 16th birthday.

Joyce Dobbert, medical social worker at St. Elizabeth Hospital, is appointed director of medical social services. She has degrees from West Virginia and Western Reserve universities.

1941: A series of heavy storms accompanied by high winds gives the Youngstown district relief from the worst heat wave of the year.

President Roosevelt indicates he has no objection to the flood-control bill passed by the Senate, which includes provisions for the solution of the Mahoning Valley water problem. Under the bill, Army engineers would ask for $7 million to begin the Berlin Reservoir.

Hundreds of soldiers, many of them from Youngstown, were on the air when the Ohio Division was featured in a broadcast to friends back home over WHAS, Camp Shelby, Ohio.