YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Dec. 6, the 340th day of 2015. There are 25 days left in the year. Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins at sunset.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1790: Congress moves to Philadelphia from New York.

1865: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, is ratified as Georgia becomes the 27th state to endorse it.

1884: Army engineers complete construction of the Washington Monument by setting an aluminum capstone atop the obelisk.

1889: Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, dies in New Orleans.

1907: The worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurs as 362 men and boys die in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, W. Va.

1917: Some 2,000 people die when an explosives-laden French cargo ship collides with a Norwegian vessel at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastates the city.

1922: The Anglo-Irish Treaty, which establishes the Irish Free State, comes into force one year to the day after it was signed in London.

1947: Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated by President Harry S. Truman.

1957: America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit fails as Vanguard TV3 rose about 4 feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing down and exploding.

1969: A free concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, Calif., is marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell’s Angel.

1989: Fourteen women are shot to death at the University of Montreal’s school of engineering by a man who then took his own life.

2005: Two women detonate explosives in a classroom filled with students at Baghdad’s police academy, killing 27 people.

2010: President Barack Obama announces a compromise with the GOP to extend Bush-era income tax cuts despite Democratic objections; the agreement includes renewing unemployment benefits and reducing Social Security taxes for one year.

2014: Officials announce that American photojournalist Luke Somers and a South African teacher, Pierre Korkie, are killed during a high-risk U.S. raid to free them from al-Qaida-affiliated militants in Yemen.

In a runoff in Louisiana, Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy defeats Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, denying her a fourth term and extending the GOP’s domination of the 2014 midterm elections.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: What began as temporary layoffs of 120 employees of the Avanti Automotive Corp. have been made permanent, leaving only 26 workers at the Albert Street plant that was opened in 1987.

Dollar Savings & Trust Co. plans to increase its loans to lower-income residents with several new programs. The programs “provide for everyone to own their own home,” says Thomas Hollern, chairman of Dollar.

1975: All United Airlines flights serving Youngstown Municipal Airport are cancelled for at least 24 hours, inconveniencing hundreds of travelers scheduled on 15 flights. The whole United system is shut down by a ground workers strike.

A wide section of Youngs-town’s South Side is shaken by an early-morning bomb that did $20,000 in damage to the Booby Trap Lounge at 2624 Market St.

Bob Meadows, a student at Boardman Middle School, will play the role of Amahl in “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” a Christmas opera presented at First Presbyterian Church.

1965: New officers and directors of the Girard Chamber of Commerce are installed: William Hochadel, president; David J. Rees Jr. and Walter Bentz, vice presidents; Joseph Mangin, treasurer; Adams Andrews, executive secretary.

Three Mahoning County Jail inmates surrender and are returned to their cells within minutes after a failed break-out. One prisoner was shot in the leg during a struggle for a gun between another inmate and a jailer.

About 200 people attend a conference on race and poverty at Cardinal Mooney High School. The program was sponsored by the Youngstown Catholic Interracial Council.

1940: The Youngstown Safety Committee takes steps to protect sled coasters by resurrecting a 1938 ordinance, which provides for blocking off 34 streets for safe- sledding zones.

Two sets of twins are born to a local couple within a year: Twin boys are named Franklin and Henry and another set named James and Jacquelyn. The William Joneses have seven other children.

N.H. Darsky and his family, who own the Golden Age Ginger Ale Co. in Youngstown, take control and management of the J.F. Giering Bottling Co., the oldest soft-drink factory in the city.