Years Ago

Today is Monday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2013. There are eight days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1788: Maryland passes an act to cede an area “not exceeding ten miles square” for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds become the District of Columbia.

1823: The poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” is published anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” is later attributed to Clement C. Moore.

1893: The Engelbert Humperdinck opera “Haensel und Gretel” is first performed, in Weimar, Germany.

1913: The Federal Reserve System is created as President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act.

1928: The National Broadcasting Company sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast network.

1941: During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrender to the Japanese.

1948: Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders are executed in Tokyo.

1953: The Soviet Union announces the execution of Lavrentiy Beria, former head of the secret police, for treason.

1962: Cuba begins releasing prisoners from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion under an agreement in which Cuba received more than $50 million worth of food and medical supplies.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Eleven firefighters are injured, two of whom remain hospitalized, while fighting a three alarm blaze at the Newport Valu King on the city’s South Side.

Preliminary reports from Mahoning County Probate Court indicate that Boardman Township may receive as much as $3 million when taxes are paid on the estate of Marie P. DeBartolo.

Playing at the Cinema South and Eastwood Cinema, “Rain Man” starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.

The Poland Zoning Commission rejects a request by David B. Roberts to reduce minimum lot sizes from 1,700 square feet to 1,400 square feet to allow him to build on 32 lots in a development he would call Old Sturbridge Place in a wooded area west of Center Road. Shawbutte Drive residents had strenuously objected to the change.

1973: The Mahoning Valley’s largest employer, General Motors Corp., poured $436 million into the area economy in 1973, up $115 million from a year earlier. Average total employment at the GM Lordstown complex and Packard Electric Division plants was 25,723.

Dr. Edgar G. Baker, emeritus chief of radiology for the Youngstown Hospital Association and a pioneer in the use of X-rays in Youngstown, dies at Park Vista Presbyterian home. He was 78.

The Rev. Frank M. Lehnerd, principal of Warren John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, is named national chaplain of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Catholic War Veterans.

1963: Twelve cars of a 125-car eastbound Baltimore & Ohio freight train derail on a stretch of track between the Windham and Warren roads underpasses at Newton Falls.

A handful of shivering people take part in a ceremony on Central Square marking the end of the 30-day mourning period for President John F. Kennedy.

Mayor Harry Savasten makes 18 appointments and three promotions from lists certified by the Civil Service Commission and says he plans to make others between Christmas and Dec. 31 when he leaves office.

1938: Girard Service Director Weir Emerick,48, is in critical condition in Ravenna Hospital, suffering from a broken neck and other injuries sustained in an auto accident near Brimfield as he was driving home from a WPA conference in Akron.

Two young bandits, masked with green silk handkerchiefs, rob the Foster Lunch, 1327 Market St., of $25, two hours after they got only 90 cents in a stickup at a dry cleaning plant.

The city of Youngstown receives $40,385 and Warren, $9,314, as their portions of state liquor fund distributions totaling $1,022,017 made by state Auditor Joseph T. Ferguson.