Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 6, the 340th day of 2011. There are 25 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1884: Army engineers complete construction of the Washington Monument with an aluminum capstone atop the obelisk.

1907: The worst mining disaster in U.S. history kills 362 men and boys in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, W.Va.

1917: Some 2,000 people die when an explosives-laden French cargo ship collides with a Norwegian vessel at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastated the city.

1921: The Anglo-Irish Treaty, which establishes the Irish Free State, is signed in London.

1947: Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated by President Harry S. Truman.

1960: Nearly 9 million acres of Alaska is set aside as an Arctic National Wildlife Range by order of President Eisenhower’s Interior secretary, Fred A. Seaton.

1989: Fourteen women are shot to death at the University of Montreal’s school of engineering by a man who then took his own life.

2001: The House of Representatives, by a one-vote margin, gives President George W. Bush more power to negotiate global trade deals.

Vindicator files

1986: Thiel colleges Phi theta Phi fraternity is marching 100 miles from Greenville to Pittsburgh with a goal of raising 30,000 for Children’s Hospital.

R. Frank Huntley is re-elected to a third term as exalted ruler of the Buckeye Elks Lodge 73 of Youngstown.

Atty. Staughton Lynd of Niles is one of three people who will receive the Civil Liberties Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

1971: Sharon Steel Corp. announces acquisition of the Damascus Tube Division of the Bishop Tube Co. in Greenville, a subsidiary of Whittaker Corp. of Los Angeles.

Three people are killed when their small car collides with a truck in Highland Avenue in Warren, bringing Trumbull County’s traffic fatalities for 1971 to 72, equal to the record for an entire year.

Before a crowd of 82,705, the Cleveland Browns stage a comeback victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, 31-27, to capture the Central Division title and win a playoff game in Cleveland either Dec. 25 or 26.

1961: Attorneys for Trumbull County Democratic Chairman Frank Cickelli files a motion with Common Pleas Judge G.H. Birrell asking for a change of venue for Cickelli’s trial on charges of extortion.

A 30-year-old East Side man tells detectives he held up two storekeepers because he lost a $48 relief check gambling as well as the proceeds from one stickup.

In a letter to City Council, Atty. James W. Cannon likens his firing as traction commissioner by Mayor Frank R. Franko to a Russian purge under Stalin.

1936: About 500 WPA workers in Mahoning County are being dropped by WPA rolls as a result of an economy drive and change of policy in Washington, says R.D. McGill, district WPA administrator.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that direct relief of unemployment has increased 65 percent in 1936 compared to 1935, despite improved business conditions that provide employment opportunities.