YEARS AGO FOR JULY 29

Today is Monday, July 29, the 210th day of 2019. There are 155 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On t his date in:

1914: Transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. becomes operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco.

1921: Adolf Hitler becomes the leader (“fuehrer”) of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

1958: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.

1967: An accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin results in a fire and explosions that kill 134 servicemen. (Among the survivors was future Arizona senator John McCain, a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander who narrowly escaped with his life.)

1981: Britain’s Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer in a glittering ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)

2004: Sen. John Kerry accepts the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Boston with a military salute and the declaration: “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.”

2017: U.S. and South Korean forces conduct joint live-fire exercises in response to North Korea’s second launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: The 8th District Court of Appeals overturns the murder conviction of Robert Girts in the poisoning death of his wife, Diane. The court says prosecutors should not have asked Girts about an alleged jailhouse confession without calling his cellmate to the stand.

Youngstown Municipal Judge Louis Levy denies a motion to revoke the bond of Alan Smith, a Weathersfield Township anti-abortion protester, but orders him to stay away from the suburban Pittsburgh home of Dr. Gerald Applegate. Youngstown prosecutor Maureen Cronin argued that Smith had harassed Applegate.

At age 30, Boardman native and former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar is adjusting to his new role as a backup for the Miami Dolphins.

1979: The Daniel Construction Co. of Greenville, S.C., begins work on a 200,000-square-foot expansion at the Lordstown General Motors Assembly Division. Valley Consolidated Industries of Warren will assemble the structural steel.

George R. Reiss, Vindicator business editor, writes that financial storm clouds are brewing for a number of Youngstown district companies, especially those in steel, trucking, railroads and air services.

U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, enters into the Congressional Record the story of the five Holibonich brothers from Campbell – John, George, Frank, Ben and Michael Jr. – who all served in World War II.

1969: Mahoning Common Pleas Judge Sidney Rigelhaupt will hear a motion to free Youngstown rackets figure Joseph “Joey” Naples from state prison.

Youngstown City Council creates three new captaincies in the Fire Department to assure that a ranking officer would be in charge of the new $70,000 snorkel truck at all times.

A lawsuit is filed seeking to recover the true value of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. stock from the Lykes merger. The suit claims the plaintiff should have gotten $65 per share, not $36.

1944: Meeting in New Orleans the National Rivers and Harbors Congress endorses construction of a Beaver-Mahoning River waterway as quickly as possible. The 1,000-member body makes the canal its highest-rated priority.

Lt. Col. Frances Grabeski of Oil City, Pa., the nation’s leading fighter pilot with 28 enemy planes destroyed in the air, is reported missing.

Tickets are available at WFMJ or The Vindicator business office for admittance to Stambaugh Auditorium on Aug. 31 when America’s Town Hall Forum will be broadcast featuring nationally known speakers.