Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Dec. 15, the 350th day of 2012. There are 16 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1791: The Bill of Rights goes into effect following ratification by Virginia.

1890: Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members are killed in Grand River, S.D., during a confrontation with Indian police.

1938: Groundbreaking for the Jefferson Memorial takes place in Washington with President Franklin D. Roosevelt taking part in the ceremony.

1939: The epic Civil War movie “Gone With the Wind,” produced by David O. Selznick and starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, has its world premiere in Atlanta.

1944: A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappears over the English Channel while en route to Paris.

1962: The Vail Mountain ski resort in Colorado officially opens.

1971: The Secret Service appoints its first five female special agents.

1972: Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial film “Last Tango in Paris” has its European premiere in Rome, as well as Paris.

1989: A popular uprising begins in Romania that results in the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

1991: An Egyptian-registered ferry, the Salem Express, hits a reef and sinks in the Red Sea; at least 470 people die, although some estimates are much higher.

2001: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, is reopened to the public after a $27 million realignment that had dragged on for over a decade.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: The Mahoning County Health Department will cite Browning-Ferris Industries under a state policy never before used in an attempt to force the Poland Township facility to reduce its intake.

Michael Antonoff, chairman of the Austintown Township trustees, says a committee will be formed to determine whether the township would benefit by incorporating as a city.

A 23-year-old Ashland, Va., woman charged with soliciting sex at an Austintown truck stop is banished from Ohio and fined $100 in Mahoning County Court, Austintown.

1972: Commercial Shearing Inc. reports record sales of $81.7 million and net earnings after taxes of $4.5 million for fiscal year 1972.

Atty. William A. Sullivan Jr., executive director of the Council of Governments, is chosen CEO of the Western Reserve Economic Development Agency, which will seek to stimulate economic growth in the Mahoning Valley.

About 200 people attend a brief, simple funeral service in the Forest Lawn Memorial Chapel for Dwight “Dike” Beede, Youngstown State University’s first and only football coach.

1962: A quantity of blasting caps and wires used to set off explosions are found in a W. Rayen Avenue building during remodeling. Police don’t believe the explosives have any connection to recent mob bombings.

The operators of 11 places in Struthers and Campbell raided by deputies have been ordered brought in for questioning about the 22 pinball machines confiscated from their premises.

For the second time, Mayor Harry Savasten vetoes an ordinance granting police Capt. Stephen Birich $915 for legal fees he incurred while successfully fighting a suspension by former Mayor Frank R. Franko.

1937: Youngstown Mayor Lionel Evans fills 16 vacancies on the police department after deliberating nearly four days over a certified civil service list of 24 names.

A poll taken by the Jambar, Youngstown College’s campus newspaper, of 342 students finds strong support for the Ten Commandments. The least dissension was registered over “honor thy father and mother,” by a vote of 337 for, 5 against. Least support went to “keep holy the Sabbath,” 277 to 65.

Twenty people are injured in East Liverpool when icy tracks cause a runaway streetcar to derail and strike an automobile and a utility pole.