Years Ago

Today is Friday, Dec. 18, the 352nd day of 2009. There are 13 days left in the year. On this date in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, is declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.

In 1787, New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1892, Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” publicly premieres in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before, marries Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.

December 18, 1984: A consortium of Youngstown area banks buys the Commuter Aircraft Corp.‘s unused facility at the Youngstown Municipal Airport for $4.8 million. The 300,000-square-foot building lies on 93 acres.

The Ohio Supreme Court upholds the state’s 1981 capital punishment law, but it may be several more years before the electric chair is dusted off.

December 18, 1969: A prisoner in Niles City Jail is foiled in an attempt to escape after jailers discover a small hole he had made in the cell wall using a sash weight he had removed from a cell window.

Ground is broken on the new $5.2 million Beeghly Physical Education Center west of the former Elm Street School.

Officers of the Mahoning County Medical Society are elected at the Mural Room, with Dr. John Stotler named president-elect.

December 18, 1959: A spectacular fire causes $40,000 in damage to Red’s Foreign Car Imports at 6335 Market St. Six new imported cars, several valued as high as $5,000, were in the display room and suffered smoke and water damage.

Dr. John Stotler is named by Mayor Frank X. Kryzan to the Youngstown Board of Health, succeeding Innocenzo Vagnozzi.

Dr. Howard W. Jones, president of Youngstown University, announces plans to build a student center building that will cost in excess of $1.55 million.

December 18, 1934: Youngs-town telephone users will receive about $1.5 million in refunds if the state supreme court upholds the state utilities commission ruling that the telephone company has been charging excessive rates, says Vern Thomas, assistant city law director.

The threatened closing of the courthouse comfort stations because the city has failed to pay for the upkeep is protested at city council meeting by Miss Maude Morris, WCTU leader. She says the comfort station is the “only respectable place in Youngstown where a woman can go to rest when downtown.”