Thursday, December 22, 2011
Today is Thursday, Dec. 22, the 356th day of 2011. There are nine days left in the year. Winter arrives at 12:30 a.m. Eastern time.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On this date in:
1775: Esek Hopkins is appointed the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy.
1808: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, and Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, have their world premieres in Vienna, Austria.
1864: During the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman says in a message to President Abraham Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah.”
1894: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus is eventually vindicated.)
1910: A fire lasting more than 26 hours breaks out at the Chicago Union Stock Yards; 21 firefighters are killed in the collapse of a burning building.
VINDICATOR FILES
1986: “Sylvia” and six of her otter friends from Arkansas are released into a branch of the Grand River by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Sister Jerome Corcoran, director of the Mill Creek Child Development Center on Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown, says the percentage of children living below the poverty line has increased by 10 percent in the last 10 years.
Dr. Paul Zerbi is installed as president of the Trumbull County Medical Society.
1971: Two children who were abducted from a Niles foster home by their father are safe, but the father and a friend are dead after trying to hijack a shrimp boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Dead are Royce Lee Bowling and David Joe Dillman of Iowa City, Iowa.
Ralph Robinette, principal of the South Range Intermediate School, is elected superintendent of schools for the South Range School District.
John Fitzpatrick, 35, of Cleveland is stabbed to death in front of his three children while waiting to see Santa Claus at a downtown Cleveland department store by a man trying to push ahead in line.
1961: Youngstown starts a long Christmas holiday weekend in tragic fashion as two elderly pedestrians are struck and killed by cars within eight blocks and 15 minutes on Glenwood Avenue. Dead are Eugene H. Beil, 86, and Mrs. Freida Anderson, 80.
Youngstown Postmaster Chester A. Bailey reports that local postmen have handled more than 20 million pieces of mail from Dec. 1 to Dec. 21, and says they’ll attempt to deliver local cards mailed Friday by Saturday.
1936: Myron A. Wick of Cleveland, vice president in charge of finance for Republic Steel Corp., is elected president of Truscon Steel Co, the Republic-controlled steel fabricator in Youngstown.
The Ohio Edison Co., through its attorney, T. Lamar Jackson, offers Youngstown City Council a one-year extension of its street lighting contract that calls for the city to pay $10,000 per month.
Frank Purnell, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., predicts that steel output in 1937 will be 10 to 15 percent above that of 1936.