Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Dec. 25, the 359th day of 2011. There are six days left in the year. This is Christmas Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

A.D. 336: The first recorded celebration of Christmas on Dec. 25 takes place in Rome.

1776: Gen. George Washington and his troops cross the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.

1818: “Silent Night,” written by Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, is performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1941: During World War II, Japan announces the surrender of the British-Canadian garrison at Hong Kong.

1961: Pope John XXIII formally announces the upcoming convocation of the Second Vatican Council, which opened in October 1962.

2009: Passengers aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 foil an attempt to blow up the plane as it was landing in Detroit by seizing a man who tried to set off explosives in his underwear.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: The Ohio Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that will allow construction of the $90 million Waste Technologies Industries hazardous waste disposal plant in East Liverpool.

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1971: William John DeFazio is Youngstown’s first Christmas Day baby, born at 1:29 a.m. in St. Elizabeth Hospital, a son of Dominick and Shirley Miller DeFazio.

Mrs. Tilla Hughes Neff celebrates her 102nd birthday on Christmas at the Austintown home of her niece and nephew, Mr. and Mrs. Harmon Hughes.

1961: Light snow and subfreezing temperatures assure Youngstown of a white Christmas.

One of the newest methods for boosting blast furnace performance, natural gas injection, is being installed on two Youngstown area furnaces, one at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works and one at the U.S. Steel Ohio Works.

Residents of the Mahoning County Home on Herbert Road are entertained by the Pollywog Minstrel Club, followed by the distribution of nearly $300 in cash gifts for the 145 residents.

The Navy’s first woman officer ever assigned to sea duty arrives in Yokohama, Japan, aboard the Military Sea Transport Ship Gen. W.A. Mann. She is Lt. Charlene I. Suneson, 27.

1936: The busiest, happiest “giftiest” Christmas business season ends in Youngstown with the best receipts since 1929, and possibly better than that year, which was a high mark.

Charles A. Strouss, well known as the former local manager of the Graybar Electric Co., is killed in an auto crash near Canton.

It’s a merry Christmas in the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Flack, 525 Woodside Ave., following an unexpected reunion with Mrs. Flack’s cousin, Samuel Clark, now a well-to-do owner of Alaskan gold properties. She last saw him in Ireland 23 years earlier.