Today is Friday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2002. There are 18 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2002. There are 18 days left in the year. On this date in 1918, President Wilson arrives in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
In 1928, George Gershwin's musical work "An American in Paris" has its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1944, during WWII, the U.S. cruiser Nashville is badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack that claimed 138 lives. In 1978, the Philadelphia Mint begins stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which goes into circulation the following July. In 1981, authorities in Poland impose martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ends in 1983.) In 1994, an American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashes short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush claims the presidency a day after the U.S. Supreme Court shuts down further recounts of disputed ballots in Florida. Democrat Al Gore concedes, delivering a call for national unity.
December 13, 1977: The Lykes Corp. is willing to sell the idle portions of the Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co.'s Campbell Works to the community or its employees, but only if the price is right.
A crew from NBC's "Today" show is in Youngstown filming segments for what will be a national report on the closing of the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube and the loss of 5,000 steel jobs.
A 17-year-old Jackson Township youth sets in motion a two-county investigation by disclosing to Mahoning County deputy sheriffs that a handgun he used in a series of armed robberies may have been used by another man in a recent Trumbull County murder.
December 13, 1962: George R. Reiss, Vindicator industrial editor, writes from Chicago that leaders of the U.S. steel industry gathered there are voicing a strong faith in the industry's future as they open a new permanent exhibit by the American Iron and Steel Institute at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Republican Mayor Harry N. Savasten supports the view of Democratic councilmen that personnel cuts should come only as a last resort in trying to balance Youngstown's 1963 budget.
Mahoning Sheriff Ray T. Davis and Acting County Prosecutor Loren E. Van Brocklin are discussing what to do about two missing pinball machines that were tagged for confiscation during a gambling raid at Orlando's Restaurant in Struthers.
December 13, 1952: The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Alfred J. Heinrich, chancellor of the Youngstown Diocese since its erection in 1943, is named pastor of St. Patrick Church by Bishop Emmet M. Walsh.
A major step in initiating action to streamline Central Square is taken during a meeting sponsored by the public improvements committee of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce. The chamber says work should begin in early 1953.
The Mahoning County "March of Dimes" organization spent more than $29,000 in 1952 for polio care. Because of the high number of cases during the year, the organization had to take $9,000 from its reserve funds.
December 13, 1927: Youngstown Police Capt. J.J. McNicholas, who is rounding out his 36th year on the Youngstown police force, will be appointed chief of police when Joseph Heffernan takes office as mayor.
Atty. Clyde W. Osborne, principal counsel for opponents of the Niles-Youngstown water district, suggests during a hearing that if a dam is to be built on the Meander Creek it should be built at Ohltown, not Mineral Ridge.
Ohio Leather Co. directors resume payment of dividends of 8 percent on its preferred stock. The action indicates that the company, which got into difficulties after the war due to a large inventory of products and competition from foreign manufacturers, has definitely turned a corner.