Years Ago

Today is Friday, Dec. 20, the 354th day of 2013. There are 11 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1790: The first successful cotton mill in the United States begins operating at Pawtucket, R.I.

1803: The Louisiana Purchase is completed as ownership of the territory is formally transferred from France to the United States.

1812: German authors Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the first volume of the first edition of their collection of folk stories, “Children’s and Household Tales.”

1860: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston vote in favor of separation.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. gives a deposition in the civil trial of two of his reserve deputies when he was Mahoning County sheriff saying that one of them, William Kuzniak, was the best undercover operative his department had. The civil suit centers on the alleged actions of the deputies at a New Middletown bar.

More than 300 people attend a meeting called by Lawrence County Treasurer Robert Shaffer and urge the county to find a way of not closing Hill View Manor nursing home.

1973: John W. Powers, 84, former Youngstown municipal court judge and city law director, dies in North Side Hospital. He practiced law for 58 years.

The Ohio Supreme Court overturns the convictions of two Girard theater employees charged under a city ordinance with exhibiting an alleged obscene film.

1963: The mercury hits a record low for the date of 5 below zero at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

General Motors Corp. sells its No. 6 plant in Warren to the Halsey Taylor Co. for $350,000.

1938: Bertram G. Parker Sr., president and general manager of Youngstown Foundry & Machine Co., is elected president of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, succeeding Atty. T. Lamar Jackson.

Robert Calvin Huey, longtime Youngstown lawyer and political leader, dies following a heart attack suffered at his office in the Mahoning National Bank Building.