Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Dec. 4, the 338th day of 2011. There are 27 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1816: James Monroe of Virginia is elected the fifth president of the U.S.

1783: Gen. George Washington bids farewell to his Continental Army officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York, telling them, “With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take leave of you.”

1918: President Woodrow Wilson leaves Washington on a trip to France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.

1942: U.S. bombers strike the Italian mainland for the first time in World War II.

1978: San Francisco gets its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein is named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.

1986: Both houses of Congress move to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.

1991: Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest held of the Western hostages in Lebanon, is released after nearly seven years.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: The Mahoning Bank Building in downtown Youngstown is evacuated after a suspected bomb is found on an upper floor. The device was a hoax, flares attached to a clock.

Trumbull County Commissioners refuse to transfer $5,100 into the payroll accounts of the Sheriff’s Department, meaning 71 employees will not be getting paychecks.

Robert L. Pegues surprises the Warren Board of Education with his resignation effective Feb. 1. Board President Anthony Payiavlas says he was “shocked.”

1971: Ruling in a suit brought by Youngstown tavern owner Samuel J. Jordan, three federal court judges in Cleveland find Ohio’s legislative reapportionment plan unconstitutional and order that new districts be drawn.

Three firefighters at Youngstown’s No. 11 station in Poland Avenue, Carl Mild, Herman Wiesensee Jr. and Matt Curtis, are honored for saving Tim and Martha Fink when their home burned on Christmas Eve, 1970.

1961: The U.S. Air Force is studying the possibility that a 100-acre mine near Wampum Pa., abandoned by the Medusa Portland Cement Co., could provide protection for radar operations and also function as a fallout shelter for as many as 30,000 people.

The newest plant at the Reynolds Industrial Park is McGinnis Brothers Co., which produces aluminum and plastic Christmas trees, garland and other holiday decorations.

Four members of a Boardman family die instantly in the crash of their light plane off Herbert Road just north of Canfield. Dead are William E. Phillips, 35, and his wife, Beverly, 29; their son, Kenneth, 7, and a daughter, Mary Ann, 9 months. Another daughter, Barbara, 5, miraculously survives and is hospitalized in fair condition..

1936:Entertainers are arriving by train in Youngstown from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and New York for the sixth annual Alias Santa Claus Club show at Stambaugh Auditorium. All tickets are $1.

The Commerce Department estimates that foreign trade for 1936 will total nearly $5 billion, the highest since 1930, with the so-called “favorable trade balance” to the benefit of the United States by $130 million.