Today is Tuesday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2009. There are two days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2009. There are two days left in the year. On this date in 1170, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights loyal to King Henry II.

In 1808, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, is born in Raleigh, N.C. In 1845, Texas is admitted as the 28th state. In 1851, the first YMCA in the U.S. is organized, in Boston. in 1890, the Wounded Knee massacre takes place in South Dakota as an estimated 300 Sioux Indians are killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them. In 1916, Grigory Rasputin, the so-called “Mad Monk” who’d wielded great influence with Czar Nicholas II, is murdered by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1934, Japan formally renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. In 1940, during World War II, Germany drops incendiary bombs on London, setting off what comes to be known as “The Second Great Fire of London.” In 1957, singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme are wed in Las Vegas.

December 29, 1984: Three highly flammable chemicals may have been mixed in a waste shipment to Akron’s trash-burning power plant, causing an explosion that killed three.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Peter Economus administers the oath of office to Mahoning County’s new sheriff, Edward P. Nemeth, and county Commissioner Leonard Yurcho.

Nancy Reagan says she and President Reagan have buried the hatchet with the president’s eldest son, Michael, during a three-hour holiday get-together. President Reagan met his 20-month-old granddaughter for the first time during the meeting in a $3,000-per-night Century Plaza Hotel suite in Los Angeles.

December 29, 1969: Three teenage boys are being held in New Castle after being apprehended while fleeing a burglary at Springer Bros. Clothing Store at 105 Mercer St.

While Mayor-elect Jack C. Hunter watches, Probate Judge and former Mayor Charles P. Henderson swears in Youngstown’s new safety heads: Fire Chief George Panno, Police Chief Donald G. Baker, and Deputy Police chiefs Donald F. Komara and James McBride.

The Pentagon announces a draft call of 19,000 men in February, a sharp increase over January.

December 29, 1959: Safe-crackers smash a safe in the North Lima Post Office and escape with $400 in cash and an undetermined number of stamps.

Record high temperatures, thunderstorms, rain, cold and snow flurries combine in the Mahoning Valley weather picture at the end of 1959.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad institutes reductions of 21 to 33 percent in its 30-day round-trip coach fares between Youngstown and many major cities. The rate between Youngstown and Washington, D.C., will drop from $27.56 to $19.80.

December 29, 1934: One of the winners of the Walkathon at Idora Park, Miss Ann Bishop, says she did not receive $500 that was said to be paid to the winners, or even half that amount. She says the envelope given to her at the end of the contest at Idora Park contained $64. Meanwhile, Youngstown City Council has tabled legislation outlawing endurance marathons in the city.

The Mahoning County Automotive Association says it will hold a five-day automobile show at Stambaugh Auditorium in February.

Strong evidence that many Americans are literally eating their way into heart disease and early death is presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Pittsburgh. People who eat too much and exercise too little have diseased hearts, say Prof. Raymond Pearl and Dr. Antonio Ciocco of Johns Hopkins University.