YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 1, the 335th day of 2009. There are 30 days left in the year. On this date in 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus. Mrs. Parks is arrested, sparking a yearlong boycott of the buses by blacks.

In 1824, the presidential election is turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock develops between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ends up the winner.) In 1909, the first kibbutz is founded in the Jordan Valley by a group of Jewish pioneers; the collective settlement becomes known as Degania Alef. In 1913, the first drive-in automobile service station, built by Gulf Refining Co., opens in Pittsburgh. In 1934, Soviet communist official Sergei M. Kirov, an associate of Josef Stalin, is assassinated in Leningrad, resulting in a massive purge. In 1959, representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, sign a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity. In 1969, the U.S. government holds its first draft lottery since World War II. In 1989, in an extraordinary encounter, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

December 1, 1984: Youngstown Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro hails the purchase and scheduled renovation of the Voyager Motor Inn as a turning point in downtown redevelopment.

Congressman-elect James A. Traficant Jr. will serve as president of the 13-member House Democratic freshman class during the second year of the 99th Congress. Rep. Albert Bustamante of Texas was elected to serve in 1985, and named Traficant to serve the following year.

December 1, 1969: Sharon police raid an unused riding stable in Hickory Township, taking 16 members of a motorcycle club into custody, seizing firearms and suspected narcotics and charging one man in an armed robbery of a day earlier.

Two teenage bandits, one armed with a pistol, rob a mother and daughter of a purse at the front entrance of North Side Hospital and speed off in a car.

December 1, 1959: Mrs. Levina Mast, a 71-year-old Amish woman, is killed when her buggy is struck by a car in Rt. 208 near Rt. 18 as she was returning home from visiting a sister at the hospital.

The Youngstown Philharmonic Orchestra presents its second concert of the season with internationally known Geoffrey Hobday conducting and pianist Aldo Mancinelli as soloist.

December 1, 1934: Prosecutor J.H. Leighninger surges to a 62-vote lead over his challenger, W.A. Ambrose, as the recount at Mahoning County Board of Elections reaches the three-quarter mark.

Bishop Joseph Schrembs of the Cleveland Roman Catholic Diocese expresses his hope that Ohio Gov.-elect Martin L. Davey will “stick to his word” to help parochial schools obtain financial aid from the state.

The state will be asked to defray the cost of hospital and doctors for Mary Frances Tobias, who was trampled and seriously injured by a wild deer in McGuffey Road.