Today is Friday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2002. There are four days left in the year. On this date

Today is Friday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2002. There are four days left in the year. On this date in 1927, the musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opens at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York.
In 1822, scientist Louis Pasteur is born in Dole, France. In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin sets out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. (Darwin's discoveries during the trip helps to form the basis of his theories on evolution.) In 1900, militant prohibitionist Carry A. Nation carries out her first public smashing of a bar, at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kan. In 1932, Radio City Music Hall opens in New York. In 1945, 28 nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank. In 1947, the children's television program "Howdy Doody" makes its debut on NBC. In 1968, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts make a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific. In 1970, "Hello, Dolly!" closes on Broadway after a run of 2,844 performances. In 1979, Soviet forces seize control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, is replaced by Babrak Karmal. In 1985, Palestinian guerrillas open fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of 20 people are killed, including five of the attackers, who are slain by police and security personnel.
December 27, 1977: Stanley E. Peterson, the former FBI agent chosen by Mayor-elect J. Phillip Richley to head Youngstown's Police Department, says he will realign the department to improve leadership in the department and morale.
Traffic accidents over the three-day Christmas holiday claim 364 lives -- a toll well below pre-holiday estimates and 52 fewer than those who died during the three-day holiday a year earlier. Ohio counted 15 traffic fatalities and Pennsylvania, 17.
Based on interviews with faculty members of the Purdue University School of Engineering, a series of articles titled "Your Life in the 21st Century" predicts that mom and dad will be able to do their shopping from in-home computers in December 2001 and the kids will play games on a video screen.
December 27, 1962: Frigid Canadian air sweeps though the Youngstown district dropping the mercury to near zero downtown. City Park Supt. Edward Finamore reports skating at Crandall, Wick, Lincoln and South parks and Borts Field. There is also skating at Lake Newport and Lake Glacier in Mill Creek Park.
Luther T. Fawcett, retired chief engineer of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, dies of a heart attack in Daytona Beach, Fla. He had been chief engineer from 1939 until his retirement in 1961.
The Mahoning County Soldiers Relief Commission, which could have demanded county commissioners provide $413,000 in 1963, based on a recent court ruling, volunteers to take only $300,000, allowing commissioners to balance the annual budget.
December 27, 1952: Relay trouble in two Ohio Edison Co. substations causes intermittent power failures in some sections of Boardman and Brownlee Woods.
Three days into a four-day Christmas holiday weekend, the nation's highway death toll reaches 348, and it is feared that the final figure will be a record.
The Cleveland Indians promote Frank Biskup, former Chaney High School star, to the Reading, Pa., minor league team, a Class A operation. Biskup is only 19, but has already played two successful seasons with the Green Bay team in the Wisconsin State League.
December 27, 1927: Seven persons are killed by fire and smoke over the Christmas holiday weekend in Youngstown and the surrounding area. Five members of the John Duffy family died in a fire that got out of control when kerosene was used to start a stove fire in the family's Salt Springs Road home.
Arthur Speel, 18, of Cortland is killed when his automobile strikes a culvert and turns over. The broken steering wheel punctured his liver.
Claude Martin, publisher of three Trumbull County weekly newspapers, the Western Reserve Democrat, Cortland Home News and Trumbull County Shopper, dies suddenly at his home following an attack of acute indigestion.