Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Dec. 26, the 360th day of 2010. There are five days left in the year. The seven-day African-American holiday Kwanzaa begins today. This is Boxing Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1799: Former President George Washington is eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

1908: Jack Johnson,the first African-American boxer to win the world heavyweight championship, defeats Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

1941: Winston Churchill becomes the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

1960: The Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Green Bay Packers, 17-13, in the NFL Championship game, played at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

1972: The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, dies in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88.

1980: Iranian television footage is broadcast in the United States, showing a dozen of the American hostages sending messages to their families.

1990: Nancy Cruzan, the young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the right to die, dies at a Missouri hospital.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Salem firefighters ratify a new 15-month contract that will have them forgo any pay raises in 1986.

Ohio Banker magazine predicts moderate economic growth for 1986 based on a survey of 112 bankers in the state.

1970: Philip Martin, 26, jumps from a second floor window at a burning home on Hull Street and then catches the six-year-old son of Nancy Fisher, who jumped to escape the fire that had blocked the stairwell.

A group of Mahoning County Jail trustees says the jail is understaffed and overcrowded and threatens a sit-down strike unless Sheriff Ray T. Davis addresses the problem.

Harry Blackstone is elected president of the Girard Area Chamber of Commerce.

Advertisement: Coming to Stambaugh Auditorium: Jerry Lewis, the clown prince of comedy, and his troupe. Reserved seats, $6; upper balcony, $3; Patron section, which includes cocktail party and dance, $15.

1960: Susan Jo Costarella, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Costarella of Niles, is the first child born on Christmas Day in Youngstown, at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Fire destroys a garage at the home of Carl Petrick, 203 N. Raccoon Road, and kills a hunting dog. The fire is believed to have been started by a heating pad used to warm the dog.

Ohio State University is opening its newest men’s dormitory, Steeb Hall, the fifth 11-story residence to be completed on campus since 1957.

A 500 pound safe taken from the Mahoning County coroner’s office is found battered and broken in a creek bed on Parker Street near Garland Avenue. About $1,000 was removed from the safe.

1935: Five bandits, one of them a woman, rob the Union Banking Co. on Main Street in Columbiana, locking three employees in the vault and taking $10,000. As they flee, they exchange shots with Tracy Tidd, who operates a store across the street, and fired on them with a riot gun.

Fire damages the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Anastic, destroying the Christmas presents of their five-year-old son, John.

Tens of thousands of Youngstown district steel men go back to work after a Christmas break; the lighting of three open hearths at Brier Hill plant of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. brings area operations to 60 percent.

Youngstown Traffic Commissioner Carl Olson says 38 city streets have been set aside for sled riding as snow and cold temperatures continue.