YEARS AGO FOR DEC. 26

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 26, the 360th day of 2017. There are five days left in the year. The seven-day African-American holiday Kwanzaa begins today. This is Boxing Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this day in:

1917: During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson issues a proclamation authorizing the government to take over operation of the nation’s railroads.

1944: During the World War II Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium, was relieved by units of the 4th Armored Division.

1967: “Magical Mystery Tour,” the Beatles’ poorly received TV special, was broadcast (in black and white) on BBC1.

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

1996: 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colo. (To date, the slaying remains unsolved.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: The 225-member Boardman Spartan Band leave for Miami where the band will lead the Orange Bowl Parade on New Year’s Eve.

A workshop will be held at Youngstown State University for teachers from throughout Eastern Ohio to explain Ohio’s new math curriculum.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is unapologetic for its refusal to waive $266 in tolls for the truck taking the national Christmas tree to Washington, D.C. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois waived the toll for trucker Dick Willie, but Pennsylvania has an agreement with its bondholders not to waive tolls, even for charitable groups.

1977: Charles and Mildred Lenhart Barker welcome Youngstown’s first-born Christmas baby, Charles, born at 12:33 a.m. Christmas Day at North Side Hospital. Trumbull County’s first Christmas baby is Steven Thomas Elliot, son of Larry and Elaine Elliott of Fowler.

Two Ravenna men are arrested in the murder of Linda Guthier, 30, and her daughter, Tonya, 6, whose bodies were found in a park north of Ravenna.

The Youngstown Foundation distributed $616,335 to various charities and organizations in 1976, a 20 percent increase over disbursements in 1975.

1967: Red-haired and weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces, Ann Ginnis is Youngstown’s first Christmas baby, born to Mr. and Mrs. Pantellis Ginnis.

The Stambaugh-Thompson Co. is leaving its downtown location, the original site of the 121-year-old company because the building and location lack space for the company’s expansion. The new location will be on Route 224.

A man and two women escape drowning when their car crashes through a guardrail and lands in a Republic Steel pumping station moat off Pine Avenue in Howland Township. Scrambling out of the car before it sank were Delores Pittman and Robert and Correin Parks.

1942: About $300 in Christmas gifts, cash and war bonds is stolen from automobiles parked in Boardman driveways on Christmas Eve. Similar thefts were reported in Boardman on Christmas Eve 1941.

The stork, possibly inspired by war production records, sets a local record by bringing 15 Christmas babies to Youngstown parents. Boy babies outnumbered girls 2 to 1.

With most county districts yet to be heard from, the Mahoning County Health and Tuberculosis Association reports $19,200 worth of Christmas seals sold so far, more than was sold by the same date last year.