Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2010. There are two days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1170: Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights loyal to King Henry II.

1808: The 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, is born in Raleigh, N.C.

1845: Texas is admitted as the 28th state.

1851: The first American Young Men’s Christian Association is organized in Boston.

1890: The Wounded Knee massacre takes place in South Dakota as an estimated 300 Sioux Indians are killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

1910: The capital of Oklahoma is moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City as the state legislature approves a bill which is signed by Gov. Charles N. Haskell. (Although the move is challenged in court, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the action.)

1916: Grigory Rasputin, the so-called “Mad Monk” who’d wielded great influence with Czar Nicholas II, is murdered by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Youngstown area travel professionals say travel to Europe and the Mideast has diminished by as much as 50 percent worldwide as attention was focused on airline-targeted terrorism in June.

James Duerk, a former state development director under James A. Rhodes, says Gov. Richard Celeste’s claim that Rhodes bears responsibility for the demise of the steel industry in the Mahoning Valley “is so bizarre it makes you wonder if Celeste has lost touch with reality.”

Harding Free Park in Hubbard will be closed because it has been unable to purchase liability insurance, says Daniel Madeline, park board president.

1970: R. John Mock submits his resignation as Youngstown city prosecutor to Law Director Nicholas Manos.

Three Youngstown police officers are sworn in to new ranks: Capt. Frank Burnich, Lt. Donald Komara and Detective Eugene Sabatino.

1960: Mahoning County is listed for $62 million in state highway construction projects in a five-year, $2 billion proposal that will be submitted to the General Assembly.

Third Ward Councilman McCullough Williams asks city police to crack down on store and tavern owners selling intoxicating beverages to minors.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan hosts the seventh annual luncheon for Youngstown area cadets at the military academies, which was sponsored by Edward G. Fournier, president of Century Truck & Manufacturing Co., at the Colonial House.

1935: The New Year’s exhibit opening at the Butler Art Gallery includes a portrait bust of William Biasella of Youngstown done by himself, “Girl’s Head” by Dr. M.P. Mahrer of Youngstown and a model ship by George Woodside of Warren.

Julius Huehan, baritone singer on the Metropolitan Opera, was described during a radio broadcast as a native of Youngstown, but he is a Pittsburgher who once worked for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.