Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Dec. 5, the 339th day of 2010. There are 26 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: The first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, is organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

1782: The eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, is born in Kinderhook, N.Y.; he is the first chief executive to be born after American independence.

1831: Former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1848: President James K. Polk triggers the Gold Rush of ’49 by confirming that gold has been discovered in California.

1932: German physicist Albert Einstein is granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States.

1933: National Prohibition comes to an end as Utah becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

1955: The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge as the AFL-CIO; its first president, George Meany.

1994: Republicans choose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: The Ungaro administration lops $1.1 million off a 1986 budget request by Police Chief Randall Wellington, leaving the department with $8.8 million, the same as 1985.

Harry Arroyo, former International Boxing Federation lightweight champion, launches his comeback bid with a 6th round knockout of Darryl Jacobs before 1,500 fans at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman.

A Champion man is charged by Warren police with raping a comatose woman at the Gillette’s Country Place Nursing Home.

1970: The Mahoning Valley Regional Mass Transit Authority approves an application for a $1.3 million capital grant to pursue consolidation of local and school bus systems in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The Republic Steel Corp. will maintain production of roof deck lines at the Truscon plant in Youngstown, preserving 200 jobs that had been scheduled for elimination.

1960: Some 300 Liberty Township residents organize to fight the proposed routes of the Pennsylvania Shortway Extension and the Lake-to-River highway through the township.

Nine hundred employees return to their jobs when the Shenango Furnace Co. resumes operation at one of its two blast furnaces and the foundry at its plant in nearby Sharpsville.

Christ Mission Goodwill Industries opens its seventh store, this one at 2203 Market St., and just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Mahoning County Sheriff Ray T. Davis will hire six new deputies: Lloyd Phipps, Bill Johns, Monty Jenkins, Elmer Rebold, Harry Paras and George Ellis.

1935: When Lionel Evans takes over as mayor of Youngstown in January, he will inherit books that are $1.9 million in the red.

Joseph D. Smith, 68, is found frozen to death in his home at 440 Ohio Ave., Girard, after the mercury drops to 14 degrees.

Pearl Burger plays Katherina and Jack Logan is Petruchio in the Youngstown College Players production of “Taming of the Shrew.”