Today is Tuesday, Dec. 23, the 358th day of 2008. There are eight days left in the year. On this

December 23, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 23, the 358th day of 2008. There are eight days left in the year. On this date 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 1823, the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” is published anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed to Clement C. Moore. 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.

December 23, 1983: Patrolman Paul Durkin and William Rafferty will share the Youngstown Police Department’s “Officer of the Year” award. They will receive plaques and two days off with pay.

Over the objections of Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca and others, the Federal Trade Commission approves the first U.S.- Japanese car-making venture, an agreement between General Motors and Toyota that will produce cars in a California plant.

December 23, 1968: Girard City Council, which had sought to ban billboards in the city, passes an ordinance requiring a $50 fee for billboards.

Thirty student nurses in Youngstown State University’s associate degree program go caroling at North Side and South Side hospitals.

December 23, 1958: President Eisenhower’s Bureau of Budget says it is “very doubtful” that Warren’s request to be separated from Youngstown into its own Standard Metropolitan Area will be honored.

Ohio Sen.-elect Stephen Young vows to block any attempt to appoint Ohio GOP Gov. C. William O’Neill to a vacancy on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The vacancy was created when Judge Potter Stewart of Cincinnati was named to the U.S. Supreme Court.

December 23, 1933: Whole families descend on downtown Youngstown as temperatures reach 50 degrees for one final shopping rush that caused the worst traffic congestion in the long memory of Traffic Commissioner Carl Olson.

Ohio Gov. George White signs the state’s new liquor control law and drug store sales begin in Youngstown. City drug stores report an ample supply to meet immediate needs.