Years Ago

Today is Monday, Dec. 16, the 350th day of 2013. There are 15 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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.

1809: The French Senate grants a divorce decree to Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Josephine (the dissolution is made final the following month).

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

1907: Some 16 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 are eventually able to beat the Germans back).

1951: A Miami Airlines Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes just after takeoff from Newark Airport in New Jersey, killing all 56 people on board.

1960: Some 134 people are killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collide over New York City.

1962: Nepal’s Panchayat Constitution is pro-claimed.

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.

1991: The U.N. General Assembly rescinds its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.

2003: President George W. Bush signs a number of measures into law, including legislation meant to stem the flood of junk e-mail known as “spam” and a bill to establish a national museum devoted to black history.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Tony Butala, a member of The Lettermen and a Sharon native, dedicates the River Lights beautification project on Connelly Boulevard along the Shenango River. Butala is one of many people who purchased a bench or Bradford pear tree for the downtown area.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Lambros tells lawyers for Youngstown and city police officers to negotiate an agreement about the promotion of minorities in accord with a consent decree he signed in 1986.

Plans are moving forward for a restaurant and entertainment complex in Youngstown’s former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station.

1973: Army Capt. Richard M. Rees, 32, a Warren native, is killed in Vietnam, the second U.S. serviceman to be killed in Vietnam since a cease-fire took effect in January. He is the 54th Trumbull County resident to die in Vietnam fighting.

Truckers protesting high fuel prices are getting their rigs back on the road. About 250 rigs had been parked at the Penn-Ohio Plaza on Route 7 near the Ohio Turnpike, and 200 others were parked near East Liverpool.

Mark Luchansky and Tom Denton, members of Boy Scout Troop 114 at St. Charles Church in Boardman, receive their Eagle Scout awards.

1963: Rayen School student Richard Bryant, 16, of 742 Arlington St., tells Youngstown police that he shot and killed his father, Curtis, 40, while he was sleeping following a history of drunken abuse and threats.

Three people are arrested at Cid’s Tavern, 736 Wayne Ave., by state liquor agents, charged with sale of intoxicating beverages to a minor.

Republic Steel Corp. begins commercial production of electric weld steel pipe at its new No. 5 Pipe Mill at the Youngstown Works.

1938: Fire destroys the Colonial Theater on Idaho Street in Farrell, with the losses estimated at $25,000.

Lloyd Day, 71, of Wickliffe dies in South Side hospital of injuries suffered when his car collided with a streetcar on Mahoning Avenue near Dunlap Street.

Sixty totally blind children and others from the sight-saving classes of the public schools are guests of Lions’ Club members at its annual Christmas party.