Today is Tuesday, Dec. 7, the 342nd day of 2004. There are 24 days left in the year. The Jewish

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 7, the 342nd day of 2004. There are 24 days left in the year. The Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, begins at sunset. On this date in 1941, Japanese forces attack American and British territories and possessions in the Pacific, including the home base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
In 1787, Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1796, electors choose John Adams to be the second president of the United States. In 1836, Martin Van Buren is elected the eighth president of the United States. In 1946, fire breaks out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta; the blaze kills 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff. In 1963, during the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay is used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-shows a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. (Navy beats Army, 21-15.) In 1972, America's last moon mission to date is launched as Apollo 17 blasts off from Cape Canaveral. In 1972, Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who is then shot dead by her bodyguards. In 1983, in Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collides on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff, killing all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 aboard the Iberia jet. In 1987, 43 people are killed in the crash of a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in California after a gunman apparently opens fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots. In 1988, a major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastates northern Armenia; official estimates put the death toll at 25,000.
December 7, 1979: Steel industry representatives urge Congress to protect them from foreign manufacturers who "dump" steel in the United States at below-cost prices.
The city or Youngstown, already facing a loss of more than $1 million in income taxes when U.S. Steel and Jones & amp; Laughlin steel mills close, also stands to lose $300,000 or more in yearly revenue from water sales.
After 32 years in the mainstream of political life in Warren, Trumbull County Commissioner Walter Pestrak is calling it quits. Pestrak, 66, says he does not intend to seek re-election and will resign in January, rather than serve the last year of his term as a lameduck.
December 7, 1964: Leroy E. Shaner, 85, former president of the Metropolitan Savings and Loan Co., dies at his residence. He was a trustee of First Presbyterian Church and president of the Torch Club.
Three Youngstown City Series football players and two others from the district are named to the Associated Press All-Ohio Class AA teams. Bill Watterson of Niles is named to first team defense; Jim Burns of Ursuline, second team offense; Jerry Tabacca of Warren Harding, second team defense; Dick Angle of Ursuline and Jim Smart of Chaney, honorable mention.
December 7, 1954: A 5-year-old Brier Hill boy and his 78-year-old grandmother are killed in a fire that swept through their two-story home on Clyde Street. Dead are Robert Huntington and Mrs. Mary Reid.
The boys choirs of St. John's Episcopal Church and St. Patrick Church will take part in the Christmas tree lighting festival in Central Square.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may not bar interstate trucks from their highways, even for repeated and illegal overloading.
December 7, 1929: A mother saves herself and her three small children by crawling from a second story window in an apartment above the Great Atlantic & amp; Pacific Tea Co. store at Elm Street and New York Avenue. Mrs. Earl Yates, wife of the manager of the store, was in the apartment with her children, Joy, Roger and Betty Jean when the fire broke out in the basement.
Youngstown City Council and Mayor Joseph Heffernan promise aid for the widow and four children of John P. McLaughlin, who was killed by a police car.
Mayor Joseph Heffernan will speak at the national convention in New York of the National Association of Amusement Parks, the first of a series of meetings in different parts of the country designed to advertise Youngstown as a fine location for industrial, manufacturing and commercial enterprises.