Years ago

years ago

Today is Thursday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2015. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve.

associated press

On this date in:

1814: The United States and Britain sign the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 after ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.

1865: Several veterans of the Confederate Army form a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn., that is the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.

1914: During World War I, impromptu Christmas truces begin to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.

1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe as part of Operation Overlord.

1955: The Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., finds itself fielding phone calls from children wanting to know the whereabouts of Santa Claus after a newspaper ad mistakenly gave the center’s number; the result was a tradition continued by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) of tracking Santa’s location the night before Christmas.

1968: The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.

1980: Americans remember the U.S. hostages in Iran by burning candles or shining lights for 417 seconds – one second for each day of captivity.

2010: Pope Benedict XVI ushers in Christmas Eve with an evening Mass amid heightened security concerns after package bombings at two Rome embassies and Christmas Eve security breaches at the Vatican the previous two years.

2014: Sony Pictures broadly releases “The Interview” online – an unprecedented counterstroke against the hackers who’d spoiled the Christmas opening of the comedy depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

vindicator files

1990: Mahoning County commissioners may have to seek a tax increase in 1991 as the slowdown in the economy is expected to reduce general fund revenue by about $1 million from $22.7 million in 1990.

FNB Corp. will pay about $2 million less than the initial estimate of $10 million for Dollar Savings Association of New Castle.

Joseph J. Phillips, 64, a State Farm Insurance agent, is organizing this year’s Sharpsville Service Club’s Santa Claus visitation program that has Santa visit every home with children if they leave their porch light on.

1975: A rise of nearly $32 million in tax valuation for the Youngstown City School District will allow the total school tax millage to drop from 34.5 mills in 1975 to 32.6 mills in 1976.

The nurse in charge of the ward at Apple Creek State Institute where Lottie Ann Leonhart, 26, of Niles-Canfield Road was tortured, has been charged with dereliction of duty.

Pro golfer Jerry McGee of East Palestine, who was the 16th top money winner on the PGA tour in 1975 with winnings of $93,000, will make his 1976 debut in the Dean Martin Phoenix Open on Jan. 7.

1965: Pre-Christmas tragedy strikes two Trumbull County families when a 9-year-old boy riding his bicycle goes through the ice on Mosquito Creek and his 10-year-old friend tries to save him. Niles firemen recovered the bodies of Richard Greene of Niles and Joseph Knepper of Warren.

The Youngstown Toastmaster Club installs Bud J. Fares, local Civil Defense director, as its president. Other officers are vice presidents, William Reinold and Irwin J. Kretzer; treasurer, John McAuley; secretary, John Olejar and sergeant-at-arms, Mike Wyre.

The Youngstown Board of Control awards the contract for the city’s life insurance coverage to the John Hancock Insurance Co.

1940: A record crowd estimated at 100,000 shops downtown during the weekend before Christmas, raising merchants’ hopes for record-breaking holiday business.

Three Youngstown Reserve officers are ordered to extend their duty with the U.S. Army: Major Virgil Powell, armored force units; 1st Lt. Asher Randall, Medical Corps, and 1st Lt. Edward B. Locke Jr., engineers instructors school.

The Springfield College exhibition team, reported to be the finest group of intercollegiate gymnasts in the U.S., will appear at Youngstown’s Central YMCA.

Only 13,500 Mahoning County aliens are registered, and hundreds of others face heavy penalties for failing to register by the deadline Dec. 26. The Department of Justice estimates that there are 17,000 aliens in the county.