YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Dec. 26, the 360th day of 2015. There are five days left in the year.

associated press

On this date in:

1799: Former President George Washington is eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

1908: Jack Johnson becomes the first African-American boxer to win the world heavyweight championship as he defeats Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

1966: Kwanzaa is first celebrated.

1972: The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, dies in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88.

1980: Iranian television footage is broadcast in the United States, showing a dozen of the American hostages sending messages to their families.

2004: More than 230,000 people, mostly in southern Asia, are killed by a 100-foot-high tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean.

2006: Former President Gerald R. Ford dies in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 93.

2014: Russia identifies NATO as the nation’s No. 1 military threat under a new military doctrine signed by President Vladimir Putin.

vindicator files

1990: Michael McCullion of Youngstown completes eight years as registrar of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles under outgoing Gov. Richard F. Celeste.

Reacting to a decline in orders, Warren Consolidated Industries Inc. lays off 350 hourly employees, the largest number since the company was founded in 1988.

Since Ohio raised its legal drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1987, makers of fake identification cards are flourishing, especially around college campuses.

1975: St. Elizabeth Hospital has eight Christmas Day babies, four girls and four boys. The first born was Evelyn Christine Wood, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Wood of North Jackson, born at 12:33 a.m.

Thousands of Youngstown district iron and steel workers are trooping back to work at four major plants that were idled for a week and will bring operations up to the 60 percent mark.

After taking the oath of office for the fourth time, Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter pledges to cooperate with city council to get the city moving forward, even in tough times.

1965: Former Lawrence County Judge W. Walter Braham will be installed as president of the 8,000-member Pennsylvania Bar Association during a meeting in Pittsburgh. He is the first attorney of the county to be head of the state group.

Abandoned mine shafts could be under the site planned for Sharon’s new $4 million high school. Test holes are being drilled.

Dr. Pauline Powers of Hubbard, a teacher of the blind for 31 years, is honored by the American Association of the Blind.

1940: Two student pilots are killed and a third injured when their airplane crashes at the unopened Youngstown Municipal Airport. Dead are Eugene Kaluckzy and John H. Fox. The pilot, Alex Rossi Jr., is in fair condition.

The stork makes nine Christmas Day visits to Youngstown hospitals, leaving six boys and three girls as welcome Christmas presents.

Postmaster Alvin Crater, three-term mayor of Youngstown and for many years a leader in Democratic politics, dies at his Fifth Avenue home.