YEARS AGO FOR JULY 20

YEARS AGO FOR JULY 20

Today is Saturday, July 20, the 201st day of 2019. 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.

1944: An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb fails as the explosion only wounded the Nazi leader.

1968: The first International Special Olympics Summer Games, organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, take place at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1969: The Apollo 11 lunar module lands on the surface of the moon with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin aboard. (They would walk on the surface of the moon several hours later on July 21).

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

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.

2018: Ohio Gov. John Kasich spares the life of condemned killer Raymond Tibbetts, commuting his sentence to life without parole, after a juror came forward and said information about the extent of Tibbetts’ tough childhood wasn’t properly presented at trial.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Boardman police charge Chris Westerfield with aggravated murder in the May 22 shooting death of his brother, William. Westerfield, 36, has been a patient at a Pittsburgh psychiatric hospital for two months.

A group of teenage skateboarders and their parents ask Columbiana Village Council to amend its strict restrictions on skateboarding within village limits.

Fourteen Catholic and Protestant students from Northern Ireland arrive in the Mahoning Valley as part of the Ulster Project. Among other activities, the Belfast team plays its American hosts in a soccer game at the Gaelic Society picnic grounds in New Springfield.

1979: John Tucker, chief engineer for the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, says that unless something is done, it is inevitable that seepage from the Deerfield hazardous-waste dump will one day contaminate Berlin Reservoir.

Judy McCloskey, 27, of Howland pleads innocent in the alleged contract killing of her former husband, Paul, who was shot to death in his bed by one of two men.

A coalition of labor unions, anti-mill neighbors of the proposed site and activists file suit in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to have a permit for construction of a U.S. Steel Corp. plant in Conneaut denied.

1969: Mahoning County Prosecutor Vincent Gilmartin is considering an investigation to determine if recent disorders were incited by outsiders and if there is any link with the local anti-poverty program.

“I’d give anything to be up there now,” says Ohioan John Glenn, 48, the first American to orbit the earth, as he watches the progress of the Apollo 11 moon shot from his vantage point at Mission Control.

Ground will be broken for St. Elizabeth Hospital’s $14 million west wing extension in ceremonies on July 28. Full construction will begin immediately by the Joseph Bucheit & Sons Co.

1944: The Mahoning Valley Industrial Council urges Youngstown and neighboring communities to plan immediately for sewage treatment and disposal to clean up the Mahoning River in anticipation of building of the Beaver-Mahoning River canal.

The 12th Naval District at San Francisco announces that two Youngstown district men are missing and are among the 213 men presumed dead in the Port Chicago explosion of two ammunition ships. They are 2/c Willis Nettles and 3/c John Henry.

After rallying in the fifth frame to tie the score, McDonald Strip Mill scores 4 runs in the 10th inning to gain a 7-3 victory over Youngstown Welding in the Mahoning County Men’s Softball League.