Today is Thursday, Dec. 18, the 353rd day of 2008. There are 13 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, Dec. 18, the 353rd day of 2008. There are 13 days left in the year. On this date in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, is declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.

In 1892, Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” publicly premieres in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1944, in a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also said undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not continue to be detained. In 1956, Japan is admitted to the United Nations. In 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first public, full-scale commercial nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, goes on line. In 1958, the world’s first communications satellite is launched by the United States aboard an Atlas rocket. In 2003, two federal appeals courts rule the U.S. military could not indefinitely hold prisoners without access to lawyers or American courts.

December 18, 1983: Law enforcement officers from Trumbull and Mahoning counties have apparently resolved a conflict arising over the rights of Mahoning County lawmen to make arrests in Trumbull County. The dispute arose after two of Sheriff James A. Traficant’s special deputies conducted a marijuana raid in Liberty Township without contacting local police. In the future, departments crossing county lines will cooperate.

December 18, 1968: Tragic fires a week before Christmas claim five lives in the Youngstown area. The three youngest children of Clyde and Lillian McVay die in a fire at their home on Trinity Church Road near Lisbon. Dead are Clyde Jr., 16 months; John, 3, and Charles Wesley, 4. In Franklin, Pa., Grace Shrout, 39, and her son, Donald, 5, die in a house fire.

Youngstown Mayor Anthony B. Flask presents a 1969 city budget totaling $20.4 million, including $11.9 million in general fund expenditures.

December 18, 1958: Harold G. Van Fossan, 61, president of J.W. Trehan Trucking Co. is killed near Westchester, W.Va., when his car collides with an ambulance. The driver of the ambulance was also killed and five people, including Van Fossan’s wife, Mary, and son, William G., were injured.

December 18, 1933: Harold Miller, 16, of Youngstown dies in a fire that destroyed the hangar at the Columbiana Airport, which had been used as a beer garden and dance hall. He was visiting a friend who worked as a night watchman and was left alone for a period of time. The fire apparently started from defective wiring while the lad was sleeping.

In its final meeting of the year, Youngstown City Council’s finance committee approves 10 percent pay cuts for city employees as a way of balancing the 1934 budget.