YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 21, the 356th day of 2016. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 5:44 a.m. Eastern time.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1620: Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower go ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.

1864: During the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman conclude their “March to the Sea” as they capture Savannah, Ga.

1879: The Henrik Ibsen play “A Doll’s House” premieres at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

1891: The first basketball game is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass.; devised by James Naismith, “Basket Ball” involved the use of a soccer ball and two peach baskets, with nine players on each team.

1937: Walt Disney’s first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” has its world premiere in Los Angeles.

1958: Charles de Gaulle is elected the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1968: Apollo 8 is launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

1988: A total of 270 people are killed when a terrorist bomb explodes aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.

1991: Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaim the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: The Ohio Board of Regents recommends a $488 million, two-year capital improvements budget that includes $10 million for Youngstown State University and $3.8 million for the Mahoning County Experimental and Educational Farm.

Martin Mines, a candidate for a job on the Warren Police Department who filed suit in 1989 after he was not appointed, is one of 13 new patrolmen hired by the city.

U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland sharply rebukes President George Bush and the Congress for being too timid in their five-year plan to eliminate a $41 billion trade deficit with Japan.

1976: Dozens of people gather outside the Mahoning County Dog Pound waiting for the doors to open at 10 a.m. in hopes of getting one of the Christmas dogs featured in the Sunday Vindicator’s annual display.

Youngstown’s housing improvement program receives $100,000 more to loan out at 3 percent interest for housing repairs.

Mrs. Jerome Hull of Canfield returns from three months in Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo, where she was a guest of her son, Dr. Walter Hull, who is serving with the Presbyterian Board of World Missions.

1966: Eighty-five percent of the nonprofessional employees at Youngstown Osteopathic Hospital vote in favor of their own bargaining association in preference to an outside union.

G&W Distributing Co. on North Meridian Road begins construction of a $225,000 warehouse at Vestal Road and Osborn Avenue. The company distributes Sylvania home entertainment electronic products.

Robert E. Williams, president and CEO of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., is made a director of the Pittsburgh National Bank.

1941: With funds available immediately, construction of the Berlin Reservoir dam and clearing of the site will begin at once. The reservoir is expected to be finished for the 1942-43 high water season.

Two members of The Youngstown Vindicator’s Washington bureau are elected officers of the National Press Club. Edward Jamieson is elected to the board of governors, and Lacey Reynolds is named secretary.