Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2010. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 6:38 p.m. Eastern time.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1620: Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower go ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.

1910: Three hundred and forty-four coal miners are killed in Britain’s Pretoria Pit Disaster

1940: Author F. Scott Fitzgerald dies in Hollywood, Calif., at age 44.

1945: Gen. George S. Patton dies in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

1948: The state of Eire, or Ireland, passes an act declaring itself a republic.

1958: Charles de Gaulle is elected to a 7-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1971: The U.N. Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.

1976: The Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant breaks apart near Nantucket Island, off Massachusetts, almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.5 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.

1988: A terrorist bomb explodes aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground and killing 270 people.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Jim Tressel, a 32-year-old assistant coach at Ohio State University, is given a three-year contract as head coach of the Youngstown State University Penguins. Athletic Director Joe Malmisur said he was looking for someone with a strong academic background; Tressel had a 3.5 grade average at Baldwin-Wallace and a 4.0 earning a master’s degree at Akron.

Reacting to recent suggestions that Youngstown pursue legalized gambling as an economic development tool, state Sen. Harry Meshel, minority leader in the Senate, says casino gambling has no chance of passage in the General Assembly.

1970: Spec. 4 Robert T. Callan, 20, of 3920 Howard St., Youngstown, dies of wounds in Vietnam after the helicopter on which he was a door gunner was shot down. He is Mahoning County’s 84th combat fatality in Vietnam.

Neil E. Putnam, offensive line coach at Yale and a former Ursuline High assistant coach, is named head football coach at Lafayette College.

1960: A new $350,000, 73-unit motel will be built at 718-720 Wick Avenue on the former Augusta Z. Bentley estate on the west side of Wick.

Burglars break into the Royal Cafe at 258 E. Federal Street and cart off a large safe containing about $2,500.

Fire destroys a large barn and silo on the farm of Mrs. Marian McMillan, Mecca Street, Cortland, causing an estimated $40,000 in damage. Cortland firemen kept the loss from going higher by getting 47 head of cattle out of the barn.

1935: A Trumbull County jury deliberates for seven hours before finding Ray Jutila, 21, guilty of murder in the death of Mrs. Marie Tobin, 20, of Warren; jurors recommend mercy in the way of life in prison rather than execution.

Two desperate bandits shoot Martin Spak, proprietor of a Robinson Road tavern in Campbell, after he refused to hand over $2,000 he had just withdrawn from the bank. Spak is in very serious condition in St. Elizabeth Hospital.