Years Ago

Today is Monday, Dec. 12, the 346th day of 2011. There are 19 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1870: Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.

1906: President Theodore Roosevelt nominates Oscar Straus to be Secretary of Commerce and Labor; Straus becomes the first Jewish Cabinet member.

1937: Japanese aircraft sink the U.S. gunboat Panay on China’s Yangtze River. (Japan apologizes, and pays $2.2 million in reparations.)

1946: A United Nations committee votes to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to be the site of the U.N.’s headquarters.

1985: Two hundred and forty-eight American soldiers and eight crew members are killed when an Arrow Air charter crashes after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland.

2000: George W. Bush is transformed into the president-elect as a divided U.S. Supreme Court reverses a state court decision for recounts in Florida’s contested election.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: During a tour of the plant, Gov. Richard F. Celeste says the start up of North Star Steel is “an important part of the long-term recovery of the Youngstown area.”

The Packard Electric Division of General Motors reports generally higher product quality for the 1986 model year, but officials say it will take more effort to meet the 1987 quality goals.

1971: The Youngstown Hospital Association operates its two hospitals on an emergency basis pending a request that Judge Clyde W. Osborne order a halt to a walkout by some 1,100 members of the Service Employees International Union, Local 627.

An afternoon of shooting practice in Leetonia ends in tragedy for three 16-year-old Boardman youths when one of them, Douglas Straub, is shot in the head.

1961: Two armed men rob a Kentucky salesman of $6,000 after driving him into Mill Creek Park. They escape in his 1962 Cadillac convertible.

Dr. Leonard Blum announces his intention to resign from his $15,000 a year job as Youngstown health commissioner.

1936: General Fireproofing Co. announces a special dividend of 30 cents a share to be paid on Christmas Eve.

Paul Colucci, 28, of Cypress Street is killed instantly when brushed by a car while crossing Poland Avenue and thrown under the wheels of a passing bus.

A purse snatcher breaks the collar bone of Miss Mary Yatsko while grabbing her pocketbook, which contained $6.