Today is Thursday, Dec. 8, the 343rd day of 2016

Today is Thursday, Dec. 8, the 343rd day of 2016. There are 23 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1765: Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, is born in Westborough, Mass.

1941: The United States enters World War II as Congress declares war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1962: Typographers begin a 114-day strike against four New York City newspapers.

1972: A United Airlines Boeing 737 crashes while attempting to land at Chicago-Midway Airport, killing 43 of the 61 people on board, as well as two people on the ground.

1980: Rock star and former Beatle John Lennon is shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.

1991: Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine declare the Soviet national government dead, forging a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Youngstown State University’s Penguins defeat the University of Nevada 30-28 in Reno to advance to semifinal play in Division 1-AA.

The renovated B&O Railroad Station opens as a restaurant and banquet center. The first event was the St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center’s Charity Ball.

Thousands of records from the collection of WYSU-FM, Youngstown State University’s classical music and fine arts radio station, will go on sale as it shifts toward compact discs.

1976: The Youngstown Board of Health, as expected, refuses to grant the Mahoning Women’s Center a license to operate an abortion clinic because it does not meet the stringent requirements of a new city ordinance. Dr. Henry Ellison, one of the physicians who inspected the facility for the board of health said the law requires personnel and equipment that are unnecessary to its purpose.

Marlin Ford, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at Lordstown, says a new contract with General Motors Corp. is approved by 76 percent of the production workers and 84 percent of the skilled tradesmen who voted.

St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center marks its 65th anniversary, celebrating its growth from a small frame house to a 20-acre medical complex.

1966: A third consecutive day of spring-like weather, with cloudy skies, high temperatures, showers and possible thunderstorms, is predicted for the area. The high reached 65 and the low, 56.

Michael Rumon, 10, of Mineral Ridge is struck and killed by an auto while riding his bicycle in Ohltown-McDonald Road.

At least 20 children are slightly injured when a Boardman school bus carrying 35 West Boulevard Elementary School children slid out of control on wet pavement, struck a tree and almost plunged down a 30-foot embankment on Sheban Drive.

The Salem Clinic and Hospital Association will file an application for federal funds to finance an addition to the central clinic.

1941: Hundreds of men from the Youngstown district are in the armed services in the Pacific. The first reported casualty from the attack on Pearl Harbor is Pvt. James H. Derthick, 22, of Ravenna. (Derthick was initially reported as killed, but was later found to be injured.)

Youngstown Police Chief John W. Turnbull asks city council for 30 more men for his department and Fire Chief Michael Melillo asks for 42 as they prepare to gear up to protect vital spots in an area that produces about 10 percent of the nation’s steel.

Frank Sinkwich, who starred on the University of Georgia football team, flies home with teammate George Poschner. Both are Chaney graduates.