Today is Thursday, Dec. 23, the 358th day of 2004. There are eight days left in the year. On this

Today is Thursday, Dec. 23, the 358th day of 2004. There are eight days left in the year. On this date in 1823, the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore is published in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.
In 1928, the National Broadcasting Company sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast network. In 1941, during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrender to the Japanese. In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders are executed in Tokyo. In 1968, 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship "Pueblo" are released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured. In 1980, a state funeral is held in Moscow for former Premier Alexei N. Kosygin, who had died Dec. 18 at age 76. In 1986, the experimental airplane "Voyager," piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completes the first non-stop, non-refueled, round-the-world flight as it lands safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In 1987, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Ford in 1975, escapes from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. (She is recaptured two days later.) In 1997, a jury in Denver convicts Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder. In 1994, Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-led government agree to a weeklong truce beginning the next day as they work on details of a four-month cease-fire; baseball owners impose a salary cap that is fiercely opposed by players. In 1999, President Clinton pardons Freddie Meeks, a black sailor court-martialed for mutiny during World War II when he and other sailors refused to load live ammunition following a deadly explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine near San Francisco that had claimed more than 300 lives; the Nasdaq composite index briefly crosses 4,000 and closes at a record high for the 58th time in 1999.
December 23, 1979: The State Government Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives open hearings to determine the causes and seek possible remedies for what the committee termed the "demise of the American steel industry."
Youngstown city officials put together a proposed 1980 budget that is $1.3 million smaller that 1979's -- an acknowledgment that hard times may lie ahead with the closing of the Ohio, McDonald and Brier Hill steel works.
Completion of the Lordstown's water distribution system, a grade separation at the B & amp;O Railroad crossing on Route 45 and diversification of the industrial tax base are among Mayor-elect Burnell Muth's major goals for the village over the next four years.
December 23, 1964: U.S. District Judge Mell Underwood orders the release of Youngstown Racketeer Joey Naples, saying a search warrant for his Youngstown home was illegally issued. Prosecuting Atty. Clyde Osborne says he is convinced the search warrant was valid and he will appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
An accused counterfeiter who was wounded in a gun battle with Secret Service agents at his home, overpowers a guard and escapes from the Lake County Memorial Hospital at Painesville.
December 23, 1954: There will be Christmas after all at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Willard Fitzgerald in the Campbell veterans housing project, thanks to President and Mrs. Eisenhower. Two boxes of gifts arrive at their home after 12 year old Laura Lee Fitzgerald wrote Mrs. Eisenhower for help at Christmas because her father is unemployed.
Ted F. Gallo, 46, and his son, Ross, 16, are severely burned when escaping natural gas explodes, destroying their six-room brick bungalow at 523 N. Beaver St., Lisbon.
The Youngstown Municipal Railway Co. increases the price of ride tokens to four for 60 cents, from 5 for 70 cents.
December 23, 1929: The new Central Savings Tower in downtown Youngstown is opened to the public, with throngs turning out to examine the structure. Bank officer describe the building as a Christmas gift to the people of Youngstown.
The Erie Railroad has set $1 million aside in 1930 for completion of the Holmes Street bridge and acquisition of property along Wood Street, G. S. Fanning, the company's engineer, has informed Mayor Joseph Heffernan.
Mrs. James E. Burke, 70, a dressmaker known to thousands in Youngstown as "Madame Burke", dies of a stroke. She was a tireless campaigner for the needy until overtaken by illness in the last year of her life.