YEARS AGO FOR DEC. 17

Today is Monday, Dec. 17, the 351st day of 2018. There are 14 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: France recognizes American independence.

1865: Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, known as the “Unfinished” because only two movements have been completed, is first performed publicly in Vienna 37 years after the composer’s death.

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

1944: The U.S. War Department announces it is ending its policy of excluding people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.

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

1992: President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sign the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.

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 indicated he was 70.

VIN DICATOR FILES

1993: The Ohio Department of Education conducts a probe that finds that Youngstown private schools have misused state funds and that the public school system allowed to happen.

Columbiana County commissioners are negotiating a loan of $7.5 million from the state to bail the county out after the disappearance of nearly $10 million in investments made by former Treasurer Ardel Strabala.

The Vindicator publishes a 12-page section on the upcoming NCAA Div. 1-AA national championship game between Coach Jim Tressel’s Youngstown State University Penguins and the Marshall University Thundering Herd.

1978: The former Rockwell International bumper plant that was shut down in the summer of 1976 in Newton Falls is coming back to life after being purchased by J.K. & M. Enterprises of Youngstown.

Christian Stoffaes, chief economist of France’s Ministry of Industry, and Jean Daniel Le Franc, chief of the French national planning commission, make a discreet visit to the Mahoning Valley to assess the impact of steel layoffs. They will report to President Val ry Giscard d’Estaing when they return to France.

The Mahoning County Welfare Department is losing two key staff members with the retirement of Vincent J. Doria, assistant welfare director, and Ray Wanecek, supervisor of the food stamp program.

1968: The bodies of all eight crewmen are recovered from the wreckage of a “Flying Boxcar” from the Youngstown Air Reserve Base that crashed in Puerto Rico. The bodies will be returned to Youngstown for identification.

McKelvey’s offer to lease 8,500 square feet in the Parkade to the Mahoning County Welfare Department at $4.75 per square foot for seven years is recommended to the county commissioners by the welfare advisory board.

Youngstown’s two deputy police chiefs, Carmen Bruno and Thomas Baker, were appointed illegally and must be removed. Any further appointments must come from civil-service eligibility lists.

1943: Seven people, three Republicans and four Democrats, are indicted by the Mahoning County grand jury on charges of violating election laws during and after voting on Election Day.

The Democratic Central Committee, which endorsed Ralph O’Neill for mayor, nominates Atty. John Powers, clerk in the board of elections and former municipal judge, as law director.