YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, Dec. 4, the 339th day of 2016. There are 27 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1619: A group of settlers from Bristol, England, arrives at Berkeley Hundred in present-day Charles City County, Va., where they have a service thanking God for their safe arrival.

1783: Gen. George Washington bids farewell to his Continental Army officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

1918: President Woodrow Wilson leaves Washington on a trip to France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.

1945: The Senate approves U.S. participation in the United Nations by a vote of 65-7.

1956: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gather for the first and only time for a jam session at Sun Records in Memphis.

1965: The United States launches Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard on a two-week mission.

1986: Both houses of Congress move to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.

1991: Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest held of the Western hostages in Lebanon, is released after nearly seven years in captivity.

1996: The Mars Pathfinder lifts off from Cape Canaveral and begins speeding toward the red planet on a 310 million-mile odyssey. (It arrived on Mars in July 1997.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Diocese of Youngs-town officials are closely monitoring a school-choice plan moving through the Pennsylvania Legislature with hopes of getting a similar plan introduced in Ohio. The law would provide state aid to offset private school tuition.

A report by the Children’s Defense Fund shows that Mahoning County children are worse off than average in eight of 10 indicators of well-being, such as mothers receiving prenatal care, babies born out of wedlock and to teenagers, percentage on public assistance and families in poverty.

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Danny Peebles says he is retiring after spending 10 minutes paralyzed by a helmet-to-helmet collision with Houston defensive back Bubba McDowell.

1976: Reflecting disappointing Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. earnings, Lykes Corp. directors cut dividends to shareholders from 25 cents to 10 cents.

Campbell City Council refuses to pay the city of Youngstown $1,222 for work it did in billing Campbell water customers because the contract for the service was signed by Mayor Rocco Mico without council’s approval.

Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Anthony Vivo administers the oath to 18 new U.S. citizens, who are then welcomed by Judge Forrest J. Cavalier. Five of the new citizens came from Argentina, five from Jordan and others were from Ukraine, Italy, Romania, Great Britain, Germany, Pakistan and Greece.

1966: Capt. Carl Nunziato, who earned the Air and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals while serving his first tour in Vietnam, is reported critically wounded during the Attleboro Campaign.

American steel firms must step up spending for automated and efficient processes if they are to compete with Japanese mills, says Robert E. Williams, CEO of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.

The speech team of Boardman High School takes top honors in the National Forensic League individual events tournament at Perry High School. Youngstown Woodrow Wilson’s team placed fourth.

1941: Two Youngstown boys are named to the United Press All-American Football Team. They are Bob Dove, Notre Dame University end, and Frank Sinkwich, University of Georgia halfback. Both are on Life magazine’s All-American team.

An additional $74,520 order for portable steel airplane landing mats is awarded by the Army Engineers Corps to Carnegie-Illinois Steel Co.

An undisclosed number of General Fireproofing Co.’s 2,500 employees in Youngstown have been laid off due to a shortage of steel.

Poland McKinley Memorial Methodist Church plans an educational department addition and redecoration of the old part of the church at a cost of $30,000. Myron Goodwin is hired as architect.