YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, Nov. 21, the 325th day of 2014. There are 40 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: North Carolina is the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1861: Judah Benjamin, who had been acting Confederate Secretary of War, is formally named to the post.

1864: A letter is signed by President Abraham Lincoln expressing condolences to Lydia Bixby, a widow in Boston whose five sons supposedly died while fighting in the Civil War. (As it turned out, only two of Mrs. Bixby’s sons had been killed in battle; also, historians are not certain that Lincoln actually wrote the letter.)

1922: Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia is sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1934: The Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes,” starring Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney, opens on Broadway.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Warren D. Spivey, 20, is sentenced to death in Ohio’s electric chair for the Jan 3, 1989, beating death of Veda Eileen Vesper in her West Ravenwood Avenue home.

Lordstown Village Council approves a $2.5 million loan to O’Neal Metals Inc., which plans to build a $6 million manufacturing plant and warehouse on Muth Road.

1974: AP Parts Division of Questor Corp. will close its muffler manufacturing plant, formerly MacKenzie Muffler Co. at 430 N. Meridian Road, Dec. 16, idling 300 hourly and 50 salaried employees.

Sue Fittipaldi, a senior at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, is crowned homecoming queen.

The burlesque dancer formerly known as Fanne Foxe, and billed as “The Washington Tidal Basin Bombshell” since her role in the downfall of U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills, D-Ark., will appear at the Park Theater in Youngstown the week of Dec. 30. She’s commanding $5,000 a week in Charlotte, N.C., for taking it all off except the G-string.

1964: The Youngstown area’s mild fall weather ends with an overnight drop to 2 degrees and a light snowfall.

Clay R. Folsom, principal of Paul C. Bunn school, is named president of Youngstown’s Fresh Air Camp for 1965.

Roy W. Howard, chairman of the executive committee of Scripps-Howard newspapers, dies in New York at 81. He was an energetic newsman who helped develop United Press International and worked to build Scripps-Howard papers into one of the nation’s leading newspaper groups.

1939: Youngstown College’s new mascot, Pete the Penguin, is relaxing at the country estate of L.B. Cooksey before taking up permanent residence at Crandall Park. College President Howard Jones has taken out a $150 policy on Pete against fire, theft, burglary, mysterious disappearance and any number of other things with a Youngstown insurance agent. The premium is $5.

A six-member citizens committee will study the possibilities for constructing a municipal stadium in Youngstown.

Paving and surfacing of more than 1,500 feet of the main runway have been completed at Youngstown’s new municipal airport in Vienna and work is being rushed on the remaining 2,000 feet to avoid bad weather.