Years ago

Today is Sunday, Nov. 21, the 325th day of 2010. There are 40 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1789: North Carolina becomes the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1920: During the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Republican Army kills 12 British intelligence officers and two auxiliary policemen in the Dublin area; British forces respond by raiding a soccer match, killing 14 civilians.

1922: Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia is sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1942: The Alaska Highway is formally opened.

1969: The Senate votes down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, 55-45, the first such rejection since 1930.

1973: President Richard Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, reveals the existence of an 181/2 minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

1980: 87 people die in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1985: U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard is arrested, accused of spying for Israel. (He pleads guilty and is sentenced to life in prison.)

1990: Junk-bond financier Michael R. Milken, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts, is sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 10 years in prison. (He serves two.)

1995: The Dow Jones industrial average closes above the 5,000 mark for the first time, rising 40.46 points to end the day at 5,023.55.

2005: General Motors announces it would close 12 facilities and lay off 30,000 workers in North America.

2009: The Senate votes 60-39 to open debate on health care legislation.

vindicator files

1985: Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says he will ask City Council to meet in special session after too few councilmen show up for the scheduled meeting to pass legislation.

Stanley Croom is sentenced to 20 years to life after pleading guilty to murder in the robbery-slaying of Delores Forgac, head coach of girls basketball and track at South High School, on Christmas Eve, 1982.

Trumbull County Commissioner Arthur Magee says county officials must live within their budgets, and if they run out of money to pay their staff at year’s end, so be it.

1970: One student is shot and a number of others treated for minor injuries as pre-football game disturbances erupt near Ohio State University.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Vincent Gilmartin says commissioners can’t legally agree to pay sheriff’s deputies in 1971 for work done in 1970. Deputies, who had agreed to accept half pay through the end of the year, walk off the job.

1960: Sixty-five freshmen begin their first full week at the new Walsh College in Canton, named for Bishop Emmet Walsh of the Youngstown Diocese.

Three mansions built by pioneer families of Sharon, the Westerman and Carver families, will be razed to provide a site for a new elementary school on Sharon’s West Hill.

1935: Forty Yuletide arches containing more than 5,000 red and green bulbs are installed in downtown Youngstown for the opening of the Christmas shopping season and the unveiling of the department stores’ decorated windows.

Mahoning Common Pleas Judge David Jenkins declares it illegal for Youngstown banks to employ counsel in their trust departments to draft wills, trusts and legal documents for customers.

Speaking at his old church, First Baptist Temple, the Rev. Frank G. Sayers says, “Many folks run after Father Coughlins, Huey Longs and Professor Townsends, in these days of headaches, because they represent a small element of truth – for these men are rainbow chasers who think the government is Santa Claus.”