Today is Sunday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2007. There are eight days left in the year. On this date

Today is Sunday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2007. There are eight days left in the year. On this date in 1823, the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” is published anonymously in the Troy (New York) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” is later widely attributed to Clement C. Moore.

In 1805, Joseph Smith Jr., principal founder of the Mormon religious movement, is born in Sharon, Vt. In 1893, the Engelbert Humperdinck opera “Haensel und Gretel” is first performed, in Weimar, Germany. 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 1967, President Johnson, on his way home from a visit to Southeast Asia, holds an unprecedented meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. 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 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.)

December 23, 1982: As many as 3,000 people line up at St. Columba Cathedral to receive food and toys from the Cathedral Outreach program, an ecumenical effort that is in its 16th year.

Boardman Township trustees name Atty. Joseph D. Betras as the successor to Atty. William G. Houser, who resigned from the board to become a Mahoning County Common Pleas judge.

December 23, 1967: The Park Theater, which houses Youngstown’s only burlesque show, is one of five parcels purchased by Youngstown at a total cost of $389,000 for the city’s urban renewal project.

Last minute shoppers jam stores throughout the Youngstown district in the final fling before Christmas.

Inflation invades Nevada’s casinos as the dollar slot machine, once the top of the line, gives way to the first $5 slot at Harold’s Club.

December 23, 1957: Berlin and Mosquito Creek reservoirs have provided the Youngstown District with direct flood control benefits estimated at $19.4 million, nearly twice their construction cost 13 years ago.

An Air Force F102A Delta Dagger jet interceptor is badly damaged as it bursts into flames during takeoff at Youngstown Municipal Airport, but its pilot, 1st Lt. Ronald Meinert, escapes injury. Meanwhile, another pilot in the 86th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at the airport lands safely minutes later after his windshield blew out in the air.

December 23, 1932: With sales counters piled high with fine new merchandise and manned by hundreds of extra sales person, Youngstown merchants look for two more record-smashing Christmas shopping days.

About half of the mail going through the Youngstown post office is being sent at the Christmas card rate oof 11⁄2 cents. The envelopes must be unsealed and can contain only a signature and short greeting. Letters and sealed envelopes must carry the full postage of 3 cents.