YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 31, the 365th and final day of 2014.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1514: Physician Andreas Vesalius, who wrote and illustrated the first comprehensive books on human anatomy, is born in Brussels.

1775: During the Revolutionary War, the British repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery is killed.

1879: Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrates his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, N.J.

1904: New York’s Times Square has its first New Year’s Eve celebration, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance.

1909: The Manhattan Bridge, spanning the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn, is officially opened to vehicular traffic.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: The Vindicator looks back on the ’80s, a decade that saw the area struggle back from the shock of the 1977 closing of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.

The New Year will bring an increase in the daily semi-private room rate at St. Elizabeth Hospital from $250 to $275 a day. Intensive care will increase from $725 to $810.

Organizers of Warren’s second annual Opening Night expect between 4,000 and 5,000 people for the New Year’s Eve arts festival downtown.

1974: Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Lloyd R. Haynes dismisses three cases of obscenity against managers of the Foster, Mahoning and Park theaters after defense lawyer Carmen Policy argues that the films were seized by police without a warrant and in violation of Supreme Court rulings.

Fire destroys the Knights of Columbus Hall, Father Michael J. Coan Council, on Illinois Avenue in McDonald. A barking dog awakened Joyce Courin in the apartment adjacent to the hall, allowing her and the dog to escape.

Annabel Battistella, also known as Fanne Fox, the woman at the center of a scandal involving U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills, cancels her scheduled appearance at the Park Theater in Youngstown. Manager Buddy O’Day says he doesn’t know why she isn’t appearing.

1964: Jane Sittig, librarian of the Poland Branch, retires.

Gov. James A. Rhodes appoints Judge George M. Jones, Youngstown, to succeed Judge Paul W. Brown on the 7th District Court of Appeals. Brown was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court.

James DeLillo, 13, of East Palestine dies while hunting near the Pennsylvania border when the shotgun of another young hunter accidentally discharges.

1939: Traffic Detective John Turnbull, a 20-year veteran of the Youngstown Police Department, is named police chief by Mayor-elect William B. Spagnola. Chief Carl L. Olson announces his retirement from the force after 27 years.

Congressman Michael J. Kirwan says America stands on the threshold of the greatest prosperity and well-being the world has ever known. He says he will seek a second term and will work for construction of a canal serving the Mahoning Valley.

Charles M. Cornwell, 61, a brakeman for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad is killed when run over by a string of cars in the east end of the Lansingville yards.