YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, Dec. 17, the 352nd day of 2016. There are 14 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton conduct the first successful manned powered-airplane flights near Kitty Hawk, N.C., using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer.

1939: The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew, ending the World War II Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay.

1969: An estimated 50 million TV viewers watch singer Tiny Tim marry his fianc e, Miss Vicky (Budinger), on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

1975: Lynette Fromme is sentenced in Sacramento, Calif., to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford. (Fromme was paroled in August 2009.)

2006: Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kidnap 30 people at the Red Crescent offices in downtown Baghdad (about half were released the same day).

2011: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies after more than a decade of iron rule; he was 69, according to official records, but some reports indicate he was 70.

2015: Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledges that he sometimes uses a personal, unsecured email account to conduct official business after he took office, a practice he called “entirely my mistake.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: U.S. Reps. James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland and Douglas Applegate of Steubenville cut the ribbon at the opening of the Veterans Administration’s Youngstown Outpatient Clinic on Belmont Avenue.

A federal mediator is called in to help settle a four-week strike by 400 members of the utility workers union against the Pennsylvania -American Water Co. in Shenango Township.

Youngstown State University Professor Victor Wan-Tatah asks why there hasn’t been a strong reaction by officials and civic leaders to Youngstown’s 58 homicides so far in 1991.

1976: A swine-flu clinic scheduled at the Canfield Fairgrounds is canceled after two Ohioans die of Gullain-Barre disease that may be linked to flu shots.

General Motors’ Lordstown assembly plant and Fisher Body Fabricating will close for 10 days after the afternoon turn Dec. 23. Employees who work the Dec. 23 shift will be entitled to five paid days during the holiday shutdown.

Rather than risk being found in contempt of court by Common Pleas Judge Charles J. Bannon, the Youngstown Civil Service Commission agrees to open its future records to public inspection.

1966: The CONTACT group at Woodside Receiving Hospital and their families hold a Christmas Party at St. John’s Episcopal Church. The Cavelle Club furnished 200 gifts.

Winners in the poster and essay contests for Keep Christ in Christmas are Gloria Primavera, Lowellville eighth-grader, for her poster, and Janet Ross, Chaney junior, for her essay.

Mrs. Howard Mansell and Mrs. Kenneth Staines co-host a meeting of the Poland-Canfield Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at the Mansell home on Hitchcock Road.

1941: All Youngstown district flying fields are under a 24-hour guard on orders of federal authorities to prevent the possibility of planes being stolen and used for sabotage or spying.

With some of the biggest pay days in Youngstown’s history scheduled in the coming week, merchants are concerned about how the big demand of late Christmas shoppers will be handled.

About 500 people enroll for volunteer defense work in the Mahoning County civil defense organization, which is under the direction of Lt. Col. Donald J. Lynn.