Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Dec. 19, the 353rd day of 2013. There are 12 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: Gen. George Washington leads his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter.

1843: “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens, is first published in England.

1910: The artificial fiber rayon is first commercially produced by the American Viscose Co. of Marcus Hook, Pa.

1932: The British Broadcasting Corp. begins transmitting overseas with its Empire Service to Australia.

1946: War breaks out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launch widespread attacks the French.

1950: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is named commander of the forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1961: Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., 73, suffers a debilitating stroke while in Palm Beach, Fla.

1972: Apollo 17 splashes down in the Pacific, winding up the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: The Trumbull County Fine Arts Council and Warren Area Chamber of Commerce are urging Trumbull County commissioners to impose a new tax on lodging in the county, but hotel and motel operators are expressing their strong opposition.

A survey by Ohio’s Certified Public Accountants shows increased productivity and a broadened service economy have raised business conditions in the Buckeye State to their most favorable level in five years.

Tony F. Marchionda, who operates Discount Records and Tapes at 545 Market St., is challenging the city’s levying of assessments to pay for “white way” street lighting along Market.

1973: A group of Youngs-town public officials, including Mayor Jack C. Hunter, asks Gov. John J. Gilligan to reopen the assignment of state pollution standards for the Mahoning River in light of changing federal standards and projected economic impact.

United Airlines will cut two daily flights at Youngstown Municipal Airport, one departing for Chicago at 9:18 p.m. and one arriving from Chicago at 7:34 a.m. The move will bring a reduction of 97 seats from the 572 available daily from United.

The Eastgate Development and Transportation Agency projects that downtown Youngstown will be short nearly 3,000 parking spaces by 1990.

1963: Legal Arts Corp., a new firm, purchases the old Sears, Roebuck & Co. store at Market and E. Boardman streets in downtown Youngstown for $150,000.

Six Struthers men indicted on charges of promoting a numbers game are freed on $5,000 bond each by Judge Sidney J. Rigelhaupt.

A tidy fortune of $40,310 in cash found in the Ridge Avenue home of Charles H. Hopps is awarded to the United Presbyterian Children’s Home in Valencia, Pa., after the Ohio Supreme Court rules that the cash was not household goods and as such should go to the children’s home under the Youngstown man’s will.

1938: Margaret Sweeney, 11, of 413 N. Walnut St. is fatally injured when stuck by a car while walking home from St. Columba School, where she was a sixth grader.

Congressman Michael J. Kirwan announces a $24,545 WPA grant for construction of a Struthers swimming pool.

Nearly $1.2 million has been spent in Mahoning County on highway maintenance and improvements over three years, a survey of department activities shows.