Monday, December 21, 2009
Today is Monday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2009. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 12:47 p.m. EST. On this date in 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower go ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
In 1804, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli is born in London. In 1937, the first feature-length animated cartoon in Technicolor, Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” has its world premiere in Los Angeles. In 1945, Gen. George S. Patton dies in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident. In 1948, the state of Eire, or Ireland, passes an act declaring itself a republic. In 1958, Charles de Gaulle is elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. In 1968, Apollo 8 is launched on a mission to orbit the moon. In 1969, Vince Lombardi coaches his last football game as his team, the Washington Redskins, loses to the Dallas Cowboys 20-10. In 1971, the U.N. Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general. In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant breaks apart near Nantucket Island, off Massachusetts, almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.5 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic. In 1988, 270 people are killed when a terrorist bomb explodes aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.
December 21, 1984: General Motors’ booming operations in the Mahoning Valley poured more than a billion dollars into the area economy. GM employs 22,168 in the Mahoning Valley and more than 54,000 in Ohio.
A senior administration official says President Ronald Reagan will tell the Soviet Union that his “Star Wars” defense system can contribute to arms control and might even be negotiable.
Robert E. Froom, life underwriter and financial strategist, is inducted into the Youngstown Association of Life Underwriters Hall of Fame. He is the third recipient of the honor.
December 21, 1969: Youngs–town’s Mayor-elect Jack C. Hunter takes over with fewer political strings attached than most of his predecessors, and is eager to see his Republican Party develop into an effective instrument of government in the Mahoning Valley.
The Packard Band presents its annual Christmas Concert at the W.D. Packard Music Hall with a special appearance by Santa Claus.
December 21, 1959: District law enforcement officials are continuing their search for a red and white 1958 Ford sedan, apparently the only clue to the hit-and-run driver who killed Theodore W. Hart, 18, of W. Delason Ave.
A 19-year-old Warren youth is shot to death by the owner of a N. River Road grocery store as the youth was fleeing an early morning burglary at the store.
Anthony DeFrances is elected to his 16th term as president of the Youngstown Master Shoe Rebuilders Association.
December 21, 1934: Maintaining a college football team with the goal of having it occupy a prominent place on the national gridiron stage costs the staggering sum of $40,000 a year, says Dr. Ralph Hutchinson, president of Washington & Jefferson College.
Ralph P. White is named president of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce during a noon meeting of the board of directors.
The Youngstown Players present their closing performance of “Ladies of the Jury” as a benefit at the Park Theater for which 1,000 tickets have been sold.