This Day in History

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 8, the 342nd day of 2010. There are 23 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1776: During the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington’s retreating army crosses the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania.

1854: Pope Pius IX proclaims the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception.

1886: The American Federation of Labor is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1940: The Chicago Bears defeat the Washington Redskins, 73-0, in the NFL Championship Game, which was carried on network radio for the first time by the Mutual Broadcasting System.

1941: The United States enters World War II as Congress declares war against Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1960: NBC broadcasts a new, color videotape version of the TV special “Peter Pan” starring Mary Martin. (Two previous telecasts, also starring Martin, had been performed live in 1955 and 1956.)

1980: Rock star John Lennon is shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.

1982: A man demanding an end to nuclear weapons holds the Washington Monument hostage, threatening to blow it up with explosives he claimed were inside a van. (After a 10-hour standoff, Norman D. Mayer is shot dead by police; it turned out there were no explosives.)

1987: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sign a treaty at the White House calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

2000: A divided Florida Supreme Court orders, 4-3, an immediate hand count of about 45,000 disputed ballots and put Democrat Al Gore within 154 votes of Republican George W. Bush.

2009: Ohio executes murderer Kenneth Biros by performing the nation’s first lethal injection using a single drug, a supposedly less painful method than previous executions that required three drugs.

Vindicator files

1985: Gary Kubic, Mayor Patrick Ungaro’s finance director, says Youngstown is solvent, but whatever extra money the city has should be used for economic development, not to beef up present departments.

Republic Hose Manufacturing Co., an employee-owned company launched with great fanfare, is struggling six years later and needs $1 million to survive and protect 100 jobs.

Eighteen Youngstown area buildings have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, including 11 downtown office buildings, theaters and stores.

1970: Mahoning County deputies return to work at half pay for the remainder of the year with anticipation of an agreement that will assure a pay hike in 1971.

City Hall telephones are being inundated by complaints from residents receiving delayed assessments for sidewalk work done in 1963. The complaints even exceed those received during the summer in the wake of a 71 percent hike in water rates.

Susan Shields, a senior at Austintown Fitch, is named Mahoning County Junior Miss and will compete in the Miss Ohio pageant in Middletown.

1960: Youngstown and a private developer are arguing over who is responsible for water and gas lines that were not buried deep enough when 10 homes on Cornell Avenue were built. Seventh Ward Councilman George Vukovich assures the residents that they won’t be responsible for the cost of correction, estimated at $1,000.

Republic Steel Corp. cuts supplemental unemployment benefits in the Youngstown area by 25 percent, becoming the third steel company to make pre-Christmas cuts in benefits.

1935: Youngstown’s biggest and finest automobile show closes at Stambaugh Auditorium with a record attendance for the week estimated as high as 25,000. More than 100 cars were sold during the week.

Edith Lorand, a Hungarian violin soloist with every important European orchestra, is making her first tour of the United States and will conduct an orchestra during her Monday Musical appearance in Youngstown.