Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 9, the 343rd day of 2014. There are 22 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1608: English poet John Milton is born in London.

1854: Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” is published in England.

1911: An explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tenn., kills 84 workers. (Five were rescued.)

1940: British troops open their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.

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1989: GF Corp. employees who lose their jobs when the company’s Youngstown plant closes in March will receive “preferential consideration” for about 100 positions GF will add in Gallatin, Tenn., according to the company.

Two local businessmen, Robert H. Van Sickle and John Ridel, purchase the Colonial House at 2619 Market St., one of the Youngstown area’s best-known restaurants.

Mahoning County Commissioner John Palermo is following in his father’s footsteps, as he is elected president of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, a post his father held in 1967.

1974: The Jackson-Milton school system’s 1.640 students and 76 teachers are back in the classroom after negotiations end a one-day strike.

Henry A. Roemer Jr., area industrialist and former president of Sharon Steel Corp., dies in the Klepper Convalescent Home in Sharon at the age of 65.

Ohio Highway Patrolman William Gregory, 68, suffers head injuries and broken ribs when his cruiser is struck by a freight train at the Washington Street crossing in Leetonia.

1964: United Construction Co. begins a $500,000 project in the Wedgewood Plaza area, which will include apartments and plaza extensions.

Saxon Club President Michael Bokesch reports that the club plans to build a new structure on Saxon Acres, South Meridian Road.

1939: More than 500 searchers scour the Bessemer, Pa., area through the night for 2-year-old Tommy Martin who wandered away from home in the afternoon. Tony Samsa, 23, a worker at the Bessemer Limestone Co., finds the boy about 6 a.m. sleeping under a bush, just as searchers were giving up hope of finding the boy alive. He suffered only some frostbite of his feet.

Joanne Redmond, 1-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Redmond, 145 Upland Ave., returns to Youngstown after having an open safety pin removed from her stomach by the famed surgeon, Dr. Chevalier Jackson