Years Ago

Today is Friday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2013. There are four days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1512: King Ferdinand II issues the original Laws of Burgos, which are intended to regulate the treatment of indigenous people on Hispaniola by Spanish settlers.

1831: Naturalist Charles Darwin sets out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

1904: James Barrie’s play “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” opens at the Duke of York’s Theater in London.

1927: The musical play “Show Boat,” with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opens at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York.

1932: New York City’s Radio City Music Hall opens to the public in midtown Manhattan.

1945: Twenty-eight nations sign an agreement creating the World Bank.

1947: The original version of the puppet character Howdy Doody makes its TV debut on NBC’s “Puppet Playhouse.”

1949: Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signs an act recognizing Indonesia’s sovereignty after more than three centuries of Dutch rule.

1968: Apollo 8 and its three astronauts make a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Youngstown Police Chief Randall Wellington proposes replacing police officers who perform basic support functions with civilian employees.

Bingo is a quarter of a billion dollar enterprise in Ohio, with Mahoning County sixth and Trumbull County eighth among the 88 counties. Bingo players spend more than $10 million a year in each county.

Leo Puhalla, 18, becomes the third Eagle Scout in his family during a ceremony at the Saxon Club.

1973: Seven Youngstown area members of the Ohio State University will be leaving for the Rose Bowl: Mark Hornak, George Houk, Nick Calderone, Gary Walton, Mike Miller, Bob Garwig and Loren Popio

Violent crime in Youngstown increases by 12 percent during the first nine months of the year, according to FBI statistics.

Irene Hallas of Craig Beach is sworn in as a Craig Beach Village councilwoman, the only woman serving on a council in the Youngstown area.

1963: Airman D.C. Victor Copeland, 22, a former Chaney High School athlete, is killed when the fan blade from his car struck his face as he raised the hood.

Frank C. Watson, president of the Youngstown Welding & Engineering Co., is elected president of the Youngstown Area Chamber of Commerce for 1964.

Three Municipal Court judges are sworn in by Common Pleas Judge Forrest Cavalier. They are John J. Leskovyansky of Youngstown, Joseph M. Kolmacic of Campbell and Robert J. Kalafut of Struthers.

1938: Fanned by a high wind, a disastrous fire of undetermined origin guts the National Gypsum Co. plant in Niles, causing $75,000 in damage and throwing about 60 men out of employment.

Five men are killed in Youngstown district auto accidents over the holiday weekend as heavy traffic and slippery pavements combine to make driving perilous.

About 72,000 inhabitants of the Mahoning Valley district are expected to share in Ohio unemployment compensation benefits to be paid beginning in February