Years Ago

Today is Monday, Nov. 23, the 327th day of 2009. There are 38 days left in the year. On this date in 1765, Frederick County, Md., becomes the first colonial entity to repudiate the British Stamp Act.

In 1889, the first jukebox makes its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon. In 1903, singer Enrico Caruso makes his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in “Rigoletto.” In 1936, Life, the photojournalism magazine created by Henry R. Luce, is first published. In 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces seize control of Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese. In 1959, the musical “Fiorello!” starring Tom Bosley as legendary New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, opens on Broadway. In 1971, the People’s Republic of China is seated in the U.N. Security Council. In 1980, some 2,600 people are killed by a series of earthquakes that devastates southern Italy. In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashes into the waves off Comoros Islands, killing about two-thirds of the 175 people on board.

November 23, 1984: An Indianapolis group, the Historic Amusement Foundation, is applying for federal grants that would be used to preserve Idora Park’s rocket ride. The foundation says hundreds of the Buck Rogers-style rides were built, but only a few survive.

Youngstown Patrolman Millard Williams and Bennie Stanley, a visitor from Boston, are credited with saving Sabatinio Palotto, 90, from his smoke-filled East Side home.

November 23, 1969: The Youngstown district’s acute labor shortage, which is crippling industrial production and boosting labor costs, shows little sign of easing.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. creates a new position of director of environmental control and names DeYarman Wallace of Canfield to the post.

November 23, 1959: The new $300,000 National Guard Armory in Hickory Township, Pa., is dedicated in a ceremony headed by Maj. Gen. Henry K. Fluck, commander of the 28th National Guard Division.

Ralph Millikin, three-term sheriff of Trumbull County, dies of a heart attack while hunting in Bloomfield Township. He was 64.

Three Youngstown fire companies work for four hours to contain a blaze that couldn’t be fought with water at the Republic Steel Corp.’s Youngstown Works. The fire started in a storage building containing zinc dust, which gives off explosive hydrogen gas when it comes in contact with water.

November 23, 1934: The Ohio House approves a 3 percent sales tax that would produce an estimated $78 million.

George T. Swanton, one of Youngstown’s most colorful veterans and a man who helped James Campbell, George Wick and C.S. Robinson build the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., dies at 88.

A 14-year-old father and his 14-year-old wife become the youngest parents on record in Fort Worth, Texas, with the birth of a 51‚Ñ2 pound daughter.

June Isaly Sidells of Warren, private secretary to Charles Peck, merchandise manager of the G.M. McKelvey Co., wins first prize of $50 in the fourth week of the Vindicator-Zain ad-writing contest.