Today is Friday, Dec. 5, the 339th day of 2003. There are 26 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, Dec. 5, the 339th day of 2003. There are 26 days left in the year. On this date in 1933, national Prohibition comes to an end as Utah becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.
In 1776, the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, is organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. In 1782, the first U.S.-native president, Martin Van Buren, is born in Kinderhook, N.Y. In 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna, Austria at age 35. In 1792, George Washington is re-elected president; John Adams is re-elected vice president. In 1831, former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1848, President Polk triggers the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold has been discovered in California. In 1932, German physicist Albert Einstein is granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States.
December 5, 1978: Four area men are being held in the Columbiana County jail on vandalism charges stemming from shots fired at a Youngstown Cartage Co. tractor-trailer. All four men are steel haulers, although police didn't know if they were members of the striking Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers.
Shareholders of LTV and Lykes Corps. approve merging the firms, with LTV shareholders meeting in Dallas and Lykes shareholders meeting in New Orleans simultaneously. A motion at the Lykes meeting that directors do their best to reopen the Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co.'s Campbell Works loses by a surprisingly narrow margin.
December 5, 1963: The Youngstown Players open a $40,000 capital fund drive to retire the mortgage on the $500,000 Playhouse and to complete several projects left out of the original plans.
Mrs. Helene Strouss Meyer, 82, of Jerold-Jean Farm, North Lima, daughter of one of the founders of the Strouss-Hirshberg Co., dies in North Side Hospital.
William LoCicero of Quinn Street, Youngstown, wins a 20-volumn set of the World Book Encyclopedia for his question which was chosen to be answered in the Junior Editors Quiz column. The fifth-grader at Lincoln School asked, "Why do stars twinkle?"
December 5, 1953: A jury of six men and six women find Thomas "Chippy" Mango innocent of first-degree murder after a five-day trial in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Mango had been accused of the 1939 murder of Marty Flask in Niles and had lived in exile for 15 years before being arrested in Boston.
Forest S. Beckett, president of Youngstown Airways, is a new director of the Youngstown Municipal Railway Co.
A peculiar December thunderstorm sweeps through the Youngstown area, creating a deluge of reports of "flying saucers." The thunderstorm was accompanied by lashing gusts of winds clocked at 55 mph.
December 5, 1928: Richard E. James, 17, who claims to be the youngest cross-continent flier in the United States, escapes without a scratch when his Travelair plane cracks up during a forced landing at the John McCulough farm near Mercer, Pa. The New York lad is flying from San Francisco to New York.
Twenty-five alleged gunmen, believed by police to be members of "Scarface Al" Capone's Chicago gang, are arrested by Cleveland police in a quiet but sudden raid on the dozen luxurious rooms they had booked in a downtown hotel. Police had hoped to nab Capone, but he failed to appear.
After a rash of thefts from autos since the holiday season began, Youngstown Police Chief McNicholas warns motorist against leaving packages in cars unless the cars are locked, "and even then, the thief may break the glass."