Today is Tuesday, Dec. 21, the 356th day of 2004. There are 10 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 21, the 356th day of 2004. There are 10 days left in the year. On this date in 1620, Pilgrims aboard the "Mayflower" go ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
In 1914, the first feature-length silent film comedy, "Tillie's Punctured Romance," is released. In 1945, Gen. George S. Patton dies in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident. In 1948, the state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declares its independence. In 1968, Apollo 8 is launched on a mission to orbit the moon. In 1971, the U.N. Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General. In 1978, police in Des Plaines, Ill., arrest John W. Gacy Jr. and begin unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy is later convicted of murdering. In 1988, 270 people are killed when a terrorist bomb explodes aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground. In 1994, a firebomb explodes on a crowded New York City subway train, injuring 48 people. (Unemployed computer programmer Edward Leary is later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 94 years in prison.) In 1999, amid heightened concerns about the possibility of a holiday terrorist attack, security is ordered tightened at American airports and the Pentagon says it is taking "appropriate action" to protect U.S. forces overseas.
December 21, 1979: Girard City Council sends a letter to Niles City Council asking for a meeting of the two bodies to negotiate a new contract for the purchase of water by Girard.
Convinced that imports of cheap steel played a part in the decline of U.S. Steel's Youngstown operations, U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams issues a demand that the Carter administration clamp down on unfair foreign competition in an effort to keep U.S. mills running.
Moody's Investors Service Inc., reacting to the announced closings of U.S. Steel and Jones & amp; Laughlin steel mills in Youngstown, reduces the city of Youngstown's bond rating from A to Baa-1. The city will have to pay a higher interest rate on future bond issues because of the new rating.
December 21, 1964: Two Youngstown men with police records are arrested running from the Commercial Motor Freight warehouse on Meridian Road and Austintown police find several cartons of freight stacked near the warehouse door.
Advertisement: Petrillo's Pizza, 3509 Powers Way and 1732 Market St., 10 cents per slice. Buy 5, get 4 free. Yes, you get 9 pizzas for only 50 cents.
December 21, 1954: A new high in seasonal retail sales is recorded by many downtown Youngstown merchants on the Saturday before Christmas. Store aisles were jammed, parking lots crowded and buses loaded to capacity throughout the day.
The military services have been told to begin pruning 403,000 from their overall strength to reach the 2.8 million man level President Eisenhower believes is right for the Cold War period.
The jury deliberating the guilt or innocence of Dr. Sam Sheppard in the murder of his wife, Marilyn, is in its fifth day. There are reports that the jurors are deadlocked, 10-2 for conviction, after 38 hours of deliberations.
December 21, 1929: Christmas mail at the Youngstown post office jumped by leaps and bounds, and a new record in the number of incoming parcel post packages were set. More than 4,000 packages and 73,000 Christmas cards were delivered in just one day.
While many of the Youngstown district plants will be "black" during Christmas week because of the holiday, independent steel executives in the area remain optimistic and expect strong business after the first of the year.
Local advocates of the project to open the Mahoning River to navigation will try to overcome opposition expressed in Pittsburgh which holds that the Mahoning canal is a dead-end proposition that would do Pittsburgh no good.