Years Ago

December 6, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Dec. 6, the 340th day of 2009. There are 25 days left in the year. On this date in 1884, Army engineers complete construction of the Washington Monument by setting an aluminum capstone atop the obelisk.

In 1790, Congress moves to Philadelphia from New York. In 1889, Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, dies in New Orleans. In 1907, the worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurs as 362 men and boys die in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, W.Va. In 1917, some 2,000 people die when an explosives-laden French cargo ship collides with a Norwegian vessel at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastates the city. In 1922, the Irish Free State comes into being under terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In 1947, Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated by President Harry S. Truman. In 1957, America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit fails as Vanguard TV3 rises about four feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing down and exploding. In 1969, a free concert by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, Calif., is marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell’s Angel. In 1989, 14 women are shot to death at the University of Montreal’s school of engineering by a man who then takes his own life.

December 5, 1984: Youngstown Councilman Herman P. Starks, who voted to ban compensatory time for cabinet-level administrator in 1982, criticizes the Ungaro administration for its investigation into such payments and calls for a private meeting of council and the administration to discuss the findings of the inquiry.

Trooper Gary E. Dolak is named Trooper of the Year at the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post.

The first major snow storm of the season drops more than 7 inches of snow on the ground, closing schools, slowing traffic and putting airline flights out of Youngstown behind schedule. Al Bold, president of Niles Building Products, says an electric discount package would be necessary to attract a Sharon steel manufacturing firm to a vacant NBP building on Hunter Street.

Ministers of 10 churches in Champion Township in Trumbull County form a Committee for Decency to persuade area businessmen to stop selling what they term pornographic magazines.

December 5, 1969: After beginning the day with promise, the stock market slips in moderate trading to its lowest point in almost three years, wit the Dow Jones average closing at 793.03.

The major international theme for Kiwanis in 1970 will be Operation Drug Alert, Carl W. Kietzman, Ohio district governor, tells 250 people at a division banquet at the Voyager Inn. Kiwanis clubs will seek to assist legislative an d police agencies in alerting the public to the abuses of drugs.

Thirty-five robbery victims are brought to the Youngstown police station to view a line-ups of eight robbery suspects.

December 5, 1959: The flight of Sam, a pioneer space monkey, was tracked on his rocket ride from Wallops Island, Va., to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean by a plane piloted by Lt. Robert R. Mackie of Warren. Mackie spotted Sam’s capsule and radioed its position to a Navy destroyer that sped to the scene and plucked the capsule form the ocean. Sam was launched 55 miles high in a Project Mercury capsule designed to take man into space some day.

Howard P. Falls, national president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity presides at the installation banquet for an SAE chapter at Youngstown University. James Douglass is the first president of the YU chapter.

The Youngstown Board of Control awards contracts totaling $93,082 for construction of a new fire station on the East Side.

December 5, 1934: George Hayes of Cleveland, business manager of “Steel” and “Daily Metal Trade” publications, tells the Youngstown Advertising Club that the Youngstown area “occupies an enviable position in the iron and steel industry in that its production facilities are pointed toward the light, flat-rolled products, rather than toward heavier materials.”

The Ohio Senate passes a 3 percent sales tax for the state by a 21-7 margin and sends the measure back to the House. The measure would produce $50 million for schools, local government and relief of the poor.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections declares Republican Prosecutor Jesse H. Leighninger re-elected based on a recount, over the objections of challenger W.A. Ambrose, a Democrat. Guards will keep a 24-hour watch over ballots at the board of elections while Ambrose decides whether to file a court challenge.

Youngstown Postmaster John J. Farrell submits a proposal to Washington for the institution of air mail service to Youngstown in time to handle last-minute Christmas mail.