This day in history

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 1, the 335th day of 2010. There are 30 days left in the year. The Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, begins at sunset.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1909: The first kibbutz is founded in the Jordan Valley by a group of Jewish pioneers; the collective settlement becomes known as Degania Alef.

1921: The Navy flies the first nonrigid dirigible to use helium; the C-7 travels from Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington, D.C.

1969: U.S. government holds its first draft lottery since World War II.

1955: Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, is arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus. The incident sparks a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Galion has a “12th player,” a crowd of about 10,000, that roots the Tigers on to a 6-0 victory over Cardinal Mooney in the Division II state football championship at Ohio Stadium.

A strike is averted at the Youngstown Hospital Association with approval of a new contract for service workers that will provide raises and bonuses of at least 4.5 percent in the first year.

1970: President Richard Nixon says a wage settlement in the General Motors strike is both inflationary and counter productive because it increases costs for an industry under challenge from foreign imports.

1960: A two alarm fire does an estimated $50,000 damage to Wellman’s Greenhouses at 135 Poland Center Road.

Edward G. Conroy, a veteran of more than 20 years in municipal planning and management, is named the first executive director of the Youngstown Metropolitan Area Development Citizens Committee.

1935: Seventeen Ohio counties have run out of money for relief working, leaving more than 50,000 Ohioans going hungry while the General Assembly debates what to do.

Although the WPA has approved $390,760 for development of Lansdowne Airport in Youngstown, the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce declares the site unsuitable for a municipal airport.