Years Ago

Today is Friday, Dec. 2, the 336th day of 2011. There are 29 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1823: President James Monroe outlines his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

1927: Ford Motor Co. unveils its Model A automobile that replaces its Model T.

1942: An artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is demonstrated for the first time, at the University of Chicago.

1954: The Senate votes to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., for conduct that “tends to bring the Senate into disrepute.”

1961: Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist who would eventually lead Cuba to Communism in a nationally broadcast speech that begins around midnight and ends five hours later.

1970: The newly created Environmental Protection Agency opens its doors. (Its first director is William D. Ruckelshaus.)

1980: Four American churchwomen are raped and murdered outside San Salvador. (Five El Salvador national guardsmen are later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Trumbull County Treasurer David A. Hines and county commissioners argue over who should collect the country’s 2.5 percent motel tax, Hines or county Auditor Edward Bush.

Niles police believe youths are responsible for about $40,000 in recent vandalism damage at the First United Methodist, Trinity Lutheran, St. Stephen, First Christian and Faith Baptist churches in the city.

1971:Managers of three food markets arrested by Boardman police are fined — $10 for Isaly’s manager and $25 for two Valu King managers — for violating the state’s prohibition against Sunday sales.

Mike Cobb, a transfer from South High, makes his first start on the North High basketball team, scoring 11 points in the 56-42 victory of North over Chaney.

1961: Lt. Sergei Gotjan, son of Mrs. Rosalie Popow of Youngstown, is killed in a traffic crash in Pensacola, Fla., where he was assigned to a flight training squadron.

More than 46,000 people jam centers throughout Youngstown and Mahoning County on the first day of Sabin oral polio vaccine distributions sponsored by the Mahoning County Medical Society.

1936: Youngstown’s sixth annual Alias Santa Claus Club show at Stambaugh Auditorium is a sell-out, says columnist Esther Hamilton.

Thousands of downtown Youngstown office workers are late for work as a 3-inch snow snarls traffic.

Universal Pipe Co. of Columbus purchases the former Block Gas Mantel Co. site at 1717 Logan Ave. and plans to establish a manufacturing unit there.

Shoppers jam downtown Youngstown stores for the first day of what merchants have dubbed “Christmas Gift Week.”