Today is Thursday, Dec. 8, the 342nd day of 2005. There are 23 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, Dec. 8, the 342nd day of 2005. There are 23 days left in the year. On this date in 1980, rock star John Lennon is shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.
In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaims the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is free of original sin from the moment of her own conception. In 1914, "Watch Your Step," the first musical revue to feature a score composed entirely by Irving Berlin, opens in New York. In 1941, the United States enters World War II as Congress declares war against Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government moves from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists press their attacks. In 1978, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir dies in Jerusalem at age 80. In 1987, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sign a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. In 1987, the "intefadeh" (Arabic for uprising) by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories begins.
December 8, 1980: Woodside Receiving Hospital could lay off up to 50 employees by March 1981 because of a $10 million deficit in the Ohio Department of Mental Health.
Former Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter is named to head a 15-member blue ribbon commission to study Mahoning County's financial plight.
Cleveland's "Kardiac Kids" play another thriller, pulling out a 17-14 victory over the New York Jets in which Quarterback Brian Sipes sets a club record of 340 passing yards on 30 completions in 41 attempts.
December 8, 1965: A Mahoning County jury finds Dr. Abraham Armstead, 77, guilty of performing an illegal abortion. He is freed on bond pending sentencing by Judge Forrest Cavalier.
Police broadcast an alert for an orange 1957 Chevrolet after a young mother reports the car and her 3-month old baby who was sleeping in the car stolen from the crowded McGuffey Plaza parking lot. Police eventually find the car in the parking lot; the woman had looked for it in the wrong lane. Police sent her home with a warning not to leave a child alone in a car.
The Strouss-Hirshberg Co. announces it will more than double its Boardman Plaza store, which opened in November 1963.
December 8, 1955: Youngstown is cracking down on gasoline spillage at the Texas Co. bulk plant on Marble St., which has created an explosion hazard at the Butler School for the second time in 13 months. More than 1,800 gallons of fuel spilled from a storage tank, filling the school's basement with fumes and forcing evacuation.
Charles T. Gaither, 88, of 737 Boardman-Canfield Road, who helped develop and use the first newspaper half-tone picture, which appeared in The Vindicator in 1893, and who later built the first automobile in Youngstown, dies at his home.
Mayor Frank X. Kryzan proposes that the plan to operate an express passenger service on the Youngstown & amp; Southern Railway tracks be revived to help relieve downtown congestion.
December 8, 1930: More than a score of buildings, some of them familiar landmarks for two or three generations, have been razed or will be to make way for Erie Railroad grade elimination on the north end of Youngstown's downtown. Among those lost will be Martin Luther Church and the Elks Club.
Youngtown City Council's finance committee rejects a proposal that residents be charged assessments to cover the cost of garbage collection and street lighting.
Sixty pullets are stolen from the chicken coop on the Logan Road estate of James A. Campbell, president of Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co. Trumbull Deputy P.A. Harter is investigating.