YEARS AGO FOR DEC. 20

Today is Thursday, Dec. 20, the 354th day of 2018. There are 11 days left in the year.

Associated Press files

1803: The Louisiana Purchase is completed as ownership of the territory is formally transferred from France to the United States.

1860: South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston vote in favor of separation.

1864: Confederate forces evacuate Savannah, Ga., as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman nearly completes his “March to the Sea.”

1924: Adolf Hitler is released from prison after serving nine months for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.

1963: The Berlin Wall is opened for the first time to West Berliners, who are allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.

1968: Author John Steinbeck dies in New York at age 66.

1996: Astronomer Carl Sagan dies in Seattle at age 62.

1999: The Vermont Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: Pennsylvania State Police, the FBI and various police departments conduct gambling raids at 34 homes in Lawrence County.

Youngstown Board of Education member Edna Pincham says board members should be limited to collecting the $80-per-meeting payment for no more than two meetings a month. In 1990 and 1991, board members were paid for a total of 57 meetings for both years. In 1992 they were paid for 61 meetings and in 1993, 65 meetings.

Ohio House Speaker Vern Riffe says, “There is momentum for reforming our health care system unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. We have to take advantage of it.”

1978: Commercial Shearing Inc. reports record sales and earnings for 1978, increasing 33 percent, from $157 million to $209 million a year earlier. Earnings after taxes were $16.8 million, up from $10.5.

As a strike by the Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers enters its 40th day, Harold Natvig, 29, a New Castle, Pa., truck driver reports being wounded by blasts from a shotgun as he was checking his rig for possible damage on Old Butler Road after hearing rifle shots.

A retired teacher and football coach, Donald M. Koma, 71, and his wife, Henrietta, 69, die when fire sweeps through one bedroom of their home at 41 Wilson Ave., Struthers.

1968: The Secret Service arrests a Youngstown man in Erie, Pa., for passing a bogus $20 bill, leading to the arrest of seven Western Pennsylvania men on counterfeit charges.

Robert Shipka, 30, former education and training director for the Community Action Council, is named by Mayor Anthony Flask as model cities director at $11,200 a year.

With colds and other seasonal respiratory illnesses on the rise, the Youngstown Hospital Association and St. Elizabeth’s call off pre-Christmas entertainment for patients as a precautionary measure.

1943: A Mercer County jury finds farm hand William A. Morell, 20, guilty in Mercer’s most gruesome triple murder on the 160-acre Wilson farm. The victims were Mrs. Helen Wilson, Mrs. Catherine Wilson and farm hand Robert McKay.

Some 8,400 boys and girls under 18 years old obtain Social Security cards during 1943 and are now in war work or other employment.

The Royal Oaks regains undisputed possession of first place in the Mahoning Valley Bowling League by sweeping the series from M&M Sheet Metal, while Carbon Blocks suffers defeat at the hands of Ben’s White Elephants.