Today is Sunday, Dec. 22, the 356th day of 2002. There are nine days left in the year. On this date

Today is Sunday, Dec. 22, the 356th day of 2002. There are nine days left in the year. On this date in 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replies "Nuts!" when the Germans demand that the Americans surrender.
In 1775, a Continental naval fleet is organized in the rebellious American colonies. In 1807, Congress passes the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe. In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sends a message to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah." In 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus is eventually vindicated.) In 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington for a wartime conference with President Roosevelt. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly votes to ratify the election of Kurt Waldheim to be secretary-general. In 1984, New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shoots four black youths on a Manhattan subway, contending they were about to rob him. In 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe's hard-line Communist rulers, is toppled from power in a popular uprising. In 1989, playwright Samuel Beckett dies in Paris at age 83. In 1991, the body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, is found dumped along a highway in Lebanon.
December 22, 1977: Youngstown City Council has asked the federal government to investigate the Northeastern Ohio Manpower and Training Consortium, which oversees government work programs in Youngstown and Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp signs legislation that will increase the state's income tax to 2.2 percent and will take between $20 and $40 extra from a family's average annual earnings.
Warren Mayor Arthur Richards appoints Eugene Blakely to be the first black member of the Warren Civil Service Commission in the city's history.
December 22, 1962: After no one claims the three $100 bills found by three Poland High School seniors, the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department gives Vicki Juvrud, Larry Pondoff and Andrew Vanish the cash.
Loot estimated at several thousand dollars is taken in a burglary at Berline's Men's Store in the Austin Village Plaza, W. Market St., Warren. Almost the entire stock was taken, including more than 50 suits.
Fidel Castro agrees to release 1,113 prisoners on Christmas Eve in exchange for food and medicine. They will be flown from Havana to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.
December 22, 1952: Mayor Charles P. Henderson plans to try again to push through an emergency ordinance authorizing the hiring of checkers for a survey to determine downtown parking needs, but his effort appears to be doomed at the hands of 3rd Ward Councilman Anthony B. Flask and 1st Ward Councilman Mike McCullion, who question the value of a winter-month survey.
Scrap -- old autos, locomotives, bridges, toys and other cast-offs -- one of the principal ingredients in steel, has become so plentiful that some mills are turning it away.
Youngstown College topples Fenn of Cleveland, 72-39, to achieve its third cage victory in seven games and second in a row, before a sparse crowd of 450 at South Field House.
December 22, 1927: Testimony during a hearing in Youngstown estimates that residents of Youngstown and Niles, the two member cities of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, will see benefits totaling $21.5 million from construction of the project, which is about twice its cost.
Samuel Fiedl, 17, of Lorain Avenue dies instantly when his sled collides with an automobile. The accident happens on a street that has not been set aside for coasting and Fiedl was sledding on the wrong side of the street.
St. John's Church begins filling long before the scheduled afternoon funeral of Joseph G. Butler Jr. Elaborate floral arrangements, the likes of which Youngstown has never seen, adorn the rostrum of the church and hang from baskets over the choir loft.