Today is Sunday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2009. There are 18 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2009. There are 18 days left in the year. On this date in 1862, Confederate forces deal Union troops a major defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia during the American Civil War.

In 1877, urged by Russia, Serbia launches a new war against Turkey, aimed at winning the remaining Slav-populated areas in southern Balkans. In 1916, about 9,000 Austro-Hungarian troops are killed in an avalanche in the Alps. In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson arrives in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office. In 1921, United States, Britain, France and Japan sign the Washington Treaty to respect each others’ rights over insular possessions in Pacific. In 1928, George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” is publicly performed for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1937, Japanese troops take Nanking in China and proceed to massacre an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians. In 1944, during World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville is badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack that claims 138 lives. In 1969, Britain announces agreement to withdraw all its forces from Libya within next few months. In 1972, U.S. Apollo 17 astronauts, on their last U.S. moon mission, unveil a plaque dedicated to peace on the lunar surface. In 1974, Egypt demands a 50-year freeze on Israel’s population as condition for peace in Middle East. In 1989, South African President F.W. de Klerk meets for the first time with imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk’s office in Cape Town. In 1990, U.S. diplomats arrive in Frankfurt after four months holding out in the embassy in Kuwait City under Iraqi occupation. In 1992, Islamic militants kidnap an Israeli soldier in Lebanon and threaten to kill him if Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Hamas movement, is not freed from jail. The soldier is found dead two days later.

December 13, 1984: Sharpsville Borough officials say they will turn on 16 of the 156 street lights turned off as an economy move, but no further restoration of street-lighting is planned.

Advertisements: Adam – the Colecovision family computer system, with digital tape drive and 80K of RAM, with daisy wheel printer and game system, $479 at any of Hills eight stores in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys. The original microwave oven, the Amana Radarrange, $288 at Sheely’s Furntiure and Appliances.

December 13, 1969: Youngstown police on routine patrol foil a burglary at the state store on Gypsy Lane. The four burglars, who had broken a hole in the concrete wall and moved 20 cases of liquor to the rear door for loading, fled.

The U.S. Senate passes legislation that would ban television commercials for cigarettes beginning in 1971. A similar bill was passed by the House earlier.

Trumbull County registers its 70th traffic fatality of the year, when a 26-year-old man dies in a freak accident in Mesopotamia. After his car slid in Route 534 and struck a guard rail, he was thrown into a beaver dam pond and drowned. The death toll elipses a record set in 1937,

December 13, 1959: The Rev. W. Frederic Miller, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, is rallying his congregation to fight a zone change that would turn the city’s Wick Avenue “cultural center” into a business district.

Dr. Richard D. Murray and Dr. Ernest Alvin, plastic surgeons, construct a stately stone medical building at 2125 Glenwood Avenue. The building, constructed at a cost of $125,000, was built by Heller-Murray Co. Dr. Murray is a son of contractor Thomas H. Murray.

The Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce will consider proposals that it aid in broadening the Mahoning County Fair at Canfield from “a country, pig and cattle show” into one that represents county industrial products as well.

December 13, 1934: Gov. George White signs a 3 percent sales tax bill and 1 percent utilities excise tax. About $37 million will be distributed to schools and local governments, including an estimated $1.5 million for Mahoning County.

The 10 leading stars at the box office are announced, led by Will Rogers and Clark Gable. Others are Janet Gaynor, Mae West, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer.