Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Dec. 16, the 351st day of 2012. There are 15 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1773: The Boston Tea Party takes place as American colonists board a British ship and dump more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.

1811: The first of the powerful New Madrid earthquakes strikes the central Mississippi Valley with an estimated magnitude of 7.7.

1907: Sixteen U.S. Navy battleships, which come to be known as the “Great White Fleet,” set sail on a 14-month round-the-world voyage to demonstrate American sea power.

1944: The World War II Battle of the Bulge begins as German forces launch a surprise attack against Allied forces in Belgium (the Allies eventually beat back the Germans).

1976: The government halts its swine flu vaccination program following reports of paralysis apparently linked to the vaccine.

1982: Environmental Protection Agency head Anne M. Gorsuch becomes the first Cabinet-level officer to be cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to submit documents requested by a congressional committee.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Richard and Pamela Schmidt of Vine Street, Columbiana, are fined $800 in Columbiana County Juvenile Court for failing to enroll their nine-year-old daughter in school, but in what could be a landmark case, the court ruled the girl can continue to be schooled at home, at least for the present.

Antelmo Alarcon, director of the Youngstown area’s Hispanic social work agency, OCCHA, apologizes for comments he made in a November Vindicator story in which he said many of Youngstown’s Hispanics live in dilapidated housing and lead “wasted lives.”

1972: The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority added 296 units to the 1,471 it had at the beginning of 1972 and has 410 more units in the development stage, says Chester Amedia, YMHA director.

A 35-year-old W. Evergreen Avenue man is shot and killed by a special police burglary squad while ransacking the home of Mrs. Kathleen Hayes, 356 W. Midlothian Blvd.

1962: The Ohio Highway and Turnpike Association gives its support to the Lake Erie-Ohio River Interconnecting Waterway during its annual convention in Cleveland.

The Ohio Association of Prosecuting Attorneys adopts a resolution calling on the Ohio General Assembly to clarify the state’s Sunday sales law.

Mrs. Vera Miklos, 69, is rescued two hours after her hand became caught in a washing machine wringer at her Wilson Avenue home after managing to break a basement window and calling to letter carrier Raymond Pesa as he approached her house.

1937: Among the 18 new patrolmen named by Mayor Lionel Evans are two who will be following in their fathers’ footsteps on the force, Dan Maggianetti Jr. and Clarence L. Burke.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown and Benjamin Jarrett of Farrell are among the 218 members of Congress who signed a petition to bring from the rules committee the Ludlow constitutional amendment that would forbid Congress from declaring war without a national referendum.

Youngstown Police Chief Carl Olson receives a subpoena to appear before the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18 to testify during the committee’s probe of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and Republic Steel strikes.