Today is Sunday, Dec. 15, the 349th day of 2002. There are 16 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Dec. 15, the 349th day of 2002. There are 16 days left in the year. On this date in 1791, the Bill of Rights goes into effect following ratification by Virginia.
In 1890, Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members are killed in Grand River, S.D., during a fracas with Indian police. In 1916, the French defeat the Germans in the WWI Battle of Verdun. In 1938, groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial take place in Washington, D.C. In 1944, a single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller disappears over the English Channel while en route to Paris. In 1948, former State Department official Alger Hiss is indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of perjury. (He is convicted in 1950.) In 1965, two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuver to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit. In 1966, movie producer Walt Disney dies in Los Angeles. In 1991, at least 464 people are left dead or missing when an Egyptian-registered ferry sinks in the Red Sea. In 1996, Boeing Co. announces plans to pay $13.3 billion to acquire rival aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corp.
December 15, 1977: A gunman whose motive and identity remain a mystery kills Mrs. Patricia DiBlasio, the wife of Dr. Leo F. DiBlasio, and wounds the doctor and his receptionist-nurse, Mrs. Mary Muffley, outside DiBlasio's office on Liberty Street in Girard.
Construction in the five-county Youngstown district increased more than 50 percent in 1977 over 1976.
The Youngstown Street Department is ordered to keep a street-by-street map of snow clearance, and foremen are ordered to monitor the work of employees more closely.
James A. Traficant Jr., executive director of the Mahoning County Drug Programs Inc., an agency of the 648 Board, is named permanent chairman of the new Mahoning County Welfare Advisory Board.
December 15, 1962: Voters in Austintown Township again defeat a 3-mill school operating levy in a special election, 3,341 to 2,677.
Youngstown City Council cuts another $470,000 from its proposed 1963 budget, getting to within $270,000 of balancing the budget. Virtually all improvement funds and departmental requests for new equipment have been eliminated.
December 15, 1952: Three Warren men pay $50 a piece for Christmas trees they planned to obtain for free. More ironic, they still don't have trees and they spent the night in jail after being nabbed taking pines from Meander game refuge.
After having a request that Boardman Township buses transport students to St. Charles School denied, the school buys three buses and begins providing transportation.
The Rev. E.W. Bloomquist, pastor of First Baptist Temple, sermonizes against the scattered burnings of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, recalling that such things were done in the days of intellectual darkness centuries ago.
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December 15, 1927: Jurors hearing the case against the first three of 12 defendants charged with manslaughter in the death of farmhand Tony Popo fail to reach a verdict and are dismissed. Prosecutors say all 12 men will be tried separately.
Atty. Clyde Osborne, chief opponent of the Youngstown-Niles water district, and Ernest Nemenyi, Vindicator reporter, almost come to blows during a break in a hearing at the Mahoning County Courthouse. Osborne accused Nemenyi of being in the employee of the water district and Nemenyi called Osborne a liar. Bystanders stepped in to avert fisticuffs.