YEARS AGO

Today is Friday, Dec. 25, the 359th day of 2015. There are six days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1066: William the Conqueror is crowned king of England.

1776: Gen. George Washington and his troops cross the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.

1818: “Silent Night [Stille Nacht]” is publicly performed for the first time during the Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1915: The Irving Berlin musical revue “Stop! Look! Listen!” (featuring the song “I Love a Piano”) opens on Broadway, beginning a run of 105 performances.

1931: New York’s Metropolitan Opera broadcasts an entire live opera over radio for the first time: “Hansel and Gretel.”

1940: The Rodgers & Hart musical “Pal Joey” opens on Broadway, beginning a run of 374 performances.

1961: Pope John XXIII formally announces the upcoming convocation of the Second Vatican Council, which opened in Oct. 1962.

1990: The World Wide Web is born in Geneva, Switzerland, as computer scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau create the world’s first hyperlinked Web page.

1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev goes on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Christmas will be different this year for hundreds of families in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys who have family members serving in Operation Desert Storm.

Youngstown Police Chief Randall Wellington wants a contract with Youngstown State University giving campus police the authority to patrol streets near the college. The Youngstown patrolmen’s union opposes such a deal.

Saying they want to share their good fortune with others, Mahoning County Republicans give Tod Children’s Hospital a check for $915 and six large bags of toys.

1975: Anna Blasko, 84, of Austintown greets her sister, Helen Hudnack, 63, of Czechoslovakia, at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, just in time for a Christmas visit. Blasko left Czechoslovakia in 1906 at age 15, six years before her sister was born.

Barbara Cronie, formerly of Austintown and a former English teacher at Jackson Milton and Boardman, is named managing editor of Gallery magazine. She is the only female editor at the men’s magazine.

James Gaudiose, owner of the Neighborhood Barber Shop at 1351 Shehy Street for 47 years, is retiring. Gaudiose, 71, has been barbering since he was 10 years old.

1965: Youngstown will honor Elizabeth Hartman with the premier of her first picture, “A Patch of Blue,” which will be shown at Paramount Theater in February. Hartman attended Boardman High School and made her first stage appearance at the Youngstown Playhouse.

A 6-pound, 2-ounce daughter born to Elmer J. and Joanne Stalnacker Jr. of Struthers is Youngstown’s first Christmas Day baby, born at 4:16 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

A rash of multiple fatality accidents sends Ohio’s holiday weekend traffic total soaring to 31, four above the 27 predicted.

1940: At least 5,500 food baskets have been distributed to needy families in Youngstown. Esther Hamilton’s Alias Santa Claus show raised $5,000, enough for 1,600 baskets, 200 more than in 1939.

The Rev. Nicholas Cheselka, new pastor of St. Michael Greek Orthodox Church, will be honored at a banquet at the Serbian Hall.

Mahoning Valley hospitals have been gaily decorated for Christmas and will be visited by carolers on Christmas Day. Patients will be served a turkey dinner.