YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, Dec. 17, the 351st day of 2015. There are 14 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: France recognizes American independence.

1865: Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, known as the “Unfinished” because only two movements had been completed, is first performed publicly in Vienna, 37 years after the composer’s death.

1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, conduct the first successful man-powered airplane flights near Kitty Hawk, N.C., using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer.

1944: The U.S. War Department announces it is ending its policy of excluding people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.

1957: The United States successfully test-fires the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

1969: The U.S. Air Force closes its Project “Blue Book” by concluding there is no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.

An estimated 50 million TV viewers watch singer Tiny Tim marry his fiancee, Miss Vicky, on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

1975: Lynette Fromme is sentenced in Sacramento, Calif., to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford. (Fromme was paroled in August 2009.)

1981: Members of the Red Brigades kidnap Brig. Gen. James L. Dozier, the highest-ranking U.S. Army official in southern Europe, from his home in Verona, Italy. (Dozier was rescued 42 days later.)

2005: President George W. Bush, in his weekly radio address, acknowledges he’d personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. after 9/11, calling it “crucial to our national security.”

2010: President Barack Obama signs into law a huge, holiday-season tax bill extending cuts for all Americans, saluting a new spirit of political compromise as Republicans applaud and liberals seethe.

2011: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies after more than a decade of iron rule; he was 69, according to official records, but some reports indicate he was 70.

2014: The United States and Cuba restore diplomatic relations, sweeping away one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: John Fabian, a Vietnam War veteran from Craig Beach who says he is suffering lingering effects from the defoliant Agent Orange, says, “The government is getting ready to fight in Iraq, and it can’t take care of the veterans it has now.”

The Rev. Thomas McCar- thy, 54, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Warren, says he will resign as pastor and for three years will be on loan to the Chicago Diocese while serving as president of the National Federation of Priests Councils.

The Cleveland Browns’ 13-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons before 46,536 fans snaps an eight-game losing streak and leaves the New England Patriots, who have a 1-12 record, with the first pick in the NFL draft.

1975: The mystery of the Canfield Fair rooster, which had been pried from its moorings at the fairgrounds in November, is partially solved when the large gold and red crower is found in the courtyard of Canfield High School.

Columbia Gas of Ohio announces its fifth increase of the year in the price of natural gas for the Canfield area. Gas will cost 25.91 cents per thousand cubic feet, compared with 22.08 cents at the beginning of the year.

The first bitter cold of the season arrives in Youngstown with temperatures falling to near zero.

1965: William B. Arn, president of National Cash Register Co., is the new president of the Christian Business Men’s Committee, which meets each month at Perkins Pancake House.

Health Commissioner Dr. Sidney Franklin bans the sale of Hong Kong “Ice Balls” because of the danger of contamination. The plastic balls are filled with liquid for use in beverages instead of ice cubes.

John C. Kochia, a retired businessman, and Charles Quinn, a math teacher, are appointed Struthers safety service director and tax commissioner by Mayor-elect Stanley E. Davis.

1940: Atty. Oscar B. Kaufman says young men interested in joining the Marine Corps will be given free transportation to Cleveland to take final exams.

Youngstown Supt. Pliny Powers announces four new city school teachers: J.E. Dillon Jr., Harold Boyer, Louis Killmeyer and Herman Leverence.

The Warner Brothers announce plans to build a $100,000 theater on Youngstown’s North Side, on Elm Street between Broadway and Bissell.

A new telephone-exchange building at Mahoning and Osborne avenues is under construction as part of a $243,000 improvement program for Youngstown’s West telephone exchange.