YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 15, the 349th day of 2015. There are 16 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1791: The Bill of Rights goes into effect after ratification by Virginia.

1814: The “Hartford Convention” begins as New England Federalists opposed to the War of 1812 secretly gather in the Connecticut capital. (America’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans and the war’s end effectively discredited the convention.)

1864: The two-day Battle of Nashville begins during the Civil War as Union forces commanded by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas attack Confederate troops led by Gen. John Bell Hood; the result was a resounding Northern victory.

1890: Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members are killed in Grand River, S.D., during a confrontation with Indian police.

1939: The Civil War motion picture epic “Gone with the Wind,” starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, has its world premiere in Atlanta.

1944: A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappears over the English Channel while en route to Paris.

1965: Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6A and Gemini 7, maneuver to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit.

1989: A popular uprising begins in Romania that results in the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

1995: European Union leaders meeting in Madrid, Spain, choose “euro” as the name of the new single European currency.

2005: Millions of Iraqis turn out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election.

2010: The U.N. Security Council gives a unanimous vote of confidence to the government of Iraq by lifting 19-year-old sanctions on weapons and civilian nuclear power.

Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller dies in Cleveland at age 92.

2014: A 16-hour hostage siege begins in Sydney, Australia, as an Iranian-born, self-styled Muslim cleric takes 17 hostages at a cafe; police end up storming the cafe, resulting in the deaths of the gunman and two of his captives.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Dr. John B. Russo, president of the faculty union at Youngstown State University, says that even with an increase in quarterly tuition from $730 to $960, YSU remains the best value among Ohio’s universities.

U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland, D-17th, will be interviewed by the Asahi Television Network of Japan for a documentary, “The World after the Cold War.”

The three-story McDonald’s restaurant at North Road and East Market Street in Warren is the first McDonald’s in Ohio to sell pizza.

1975: A 57-year record is toppled in Youngstown as the mercury reaches 64 degrees under sunny skies that made it difficult to believe that winter is only a week away.

Two Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. executives, just returned from touring Japanese steel mills, predict that Japan’s rapidly growing steel industry will play an ever- increasing role in the world economy.

Greg Pruitt races for 214 yards and three touchdowns in Cleveland’s 40-14 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs before 44,369 fans in Cleveland. Pruitt reaches 1,030 rushing yards for the season, joining Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly in the 1,000-yard club.

1965: A 75-year-od Columbiana village landmark falls victim to automation when the Pennsylvania Railroad removes the watchman’s tower at the South Main Street crossing, replacing it with automatic gates.

Theron G. Craig, plant superintendent of Sharon Steel’s Brainard Strapping Division at Warren, is named administrative assistant to the general manager.

New construction valuation for the first 11 months of 1965 in Boardman Township totals $8.5 million, nearly $1 million more than the same period a year earlier.

1940: Thousands of shoppers jam downtown Youngstown stores on the second Saturday before Christmas, making it the busiest shopping day of the holiday season so far.

A new $16 million ordnance plant announced by the Navy to be built at Canton is expected to employ 2,000 people.

Steve Downer’s sixth-annual variety show in Princeton Junior High’s auditorium draws a crowd of 500. Ralph Brown directed the singing, and Jay Dash staged dance routines.

A parade of Girl Scout uniforms from original khaki to the present forest green will be featured as the city’s first Girl Scout troop, Troop 1 of St. Luke’s Church, observes its 15th anniversary.