Years Ago

Today is Friday, Dec. 4, the 338th day of 2009. There are 27 days left in the year. On this date in 1619, settlers from Bristol, England, arrive at Berkeley Hundred in present-day Charles City County, Va., where they hold a service thanking God for their safe arrival. (Some suggest that this was America’s true first Thanksgiving.)

In 1783, Gen. George Washington bids farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York. In 1875, William Marcy Tweed, the “Boss” of New York City’s Tammany Hall political organization, escapes from jail and flees the country. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson leaves Washington on a trip to France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression. In 1965, the United States launches Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard. In 1978, San Francisco gets its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein is named to replace the assassinated George Moscone. In 1984, a five-day hijack drama begins as four armed men seize a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and force it to land in Tehran, where the hijackers kill American passenger Charles Hegna. In 1991, the original Pan American World Airways ceases operations.

December 4, 1984: November was a month of extremes in the Youngstown area, delivering a record low of 14 degrees on the 22nd and a record high of 73 on Nov. 1.

Brookfield Township trustees rule that only flat tombstones may be installed in a new section of the township cemetery, but Ray Haun, a member of a defunct cemetery commission, says he has 700 signatures on petitions protesting the banning of upright stones.

December 4, 1969: Atty. Jay Clifford Brownlee Sr., 49, vice president of the Youngstown Board of Education and well-known civic leader, dies at his home after a long illness.

The FBI reveals that it had taps of the phones of Youngstown gambler Nello Ronci as part of its investigation that unraveled a multimillion dollar interstate gambling operation.

December 4, 1959: A 62-year-old Packard Court man who has lived in the United States since 1913 is denied his application for citizenship by Common Pleas Judge Frank Jr. Battisti when he makes a speech with Communist leanings during his naturalization hearing.

A new experimental coke oven that can work on a charge of 750 pounds goes into operation at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.’s Campbell Works. .

December 4, 1934: At the end of a recount of 217 precincts paid for by Prosecutor J.H. Leighninger, the count shows him winning re-election by 84 votes. Democratic challenger W.A. Ambrose, who had the lead when the recount began, says he will pay for a recount of the remaining 41 precincts.

Youngstown City Council passes a resolution providing for the issuance of $200,000 in additional scrip.

Youngstown Police Chief Leroy Goodwin says he would favor a mandatory retirement age of 64 for city police officers.