YEARS AGO FOR JAN. 1

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 1, the first day of 2019. There are 364 days left in the year.

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On this date in:

1818: The first edition of the Gothic novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” by English author Mary Shelley, 20, is published anonymously in London.

1863: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states shall be “forever free.”

1892: The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opens.

1953: Country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, is discovered dead in the back seat of his car during a stop in Oak Hill, W.Va., while he was being driven to a concert date in Canton, Ohio.

1985: The music cable channel VH-1 makes its debut with a video of Marvin Gaye performing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

1993: Czechoslovakia peacefully splits into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1994: The North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect.

2009: An Israeli warplane drops a 2,000-pound bomb on the home of one of Hamas’ top five decision-makers, killing him and 18 others.

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1994: Area hospitals have traditionally increased their room rates with the new year, but Warren General Hospital, Western Reserve Health Care System, St. Elizabeth Hospital, Belmont Pines Hospital and Salem Hospital say they will not be announcing increases this year.

Ideal Pac of Massillon is producing curled wood chips and marketing them as an ecologically friendly packaging alternative to polystyrene peanuts.

Sheri Sweitzer, a McDonald native who has worked for Ohio Sen. Howard Metzenbaum for 17 years, will go to Thailand and Vietnam for two weeks for meetings on international adoption and will escort three children to the United States for adoption by Iowa couples.

1979: An 11-year-old Cain Street boy riding an inner tube with two companions was swept away when it overturned in Mill Creek. Firefighters used searchlights looking for Ronald Thomas near Lanterman Falls.

Youngstown Mayor J. Phillip Richley admits that he was so frustrated at times during his first year in office he considered resignation.

Wanda Cordero is the first of five women recruited to the Youngstown Police Department to go on active cruiser patrol duty.

1969: In a front page editorial, The Vindicator notes that the city has gotten nationwide attention over voters’ rejection of six levies to support city schools and vows to do more reporting and more commentary in 1969 about the challenges facing the school district.

In direct contrast with reports from other parts of the nation, Youngstown hospitals say they have no shortage of blood supplies. Columbus reports most of Ohio faces a critical shortage.

Clarence “Doc” Burke of the Youngstown police Juvenile Bureau, a familiar, friendly man to thousands of schoolchildren in the city, turned in his No. 2 badge, ending 31 years with the department.

1944: Youngstown celebrated the close of its second war-year and ushered in the new year with capacity crowds flocking to downtown and district entertainment spots. Observers saw a large number of unescorted women.

The weatherman’s forecast of continued moderate cold with little if any snow is a promise of the best ice available for skating in many years. Mill Creek Park skaters can skate from the dam almost to the golf course on Lake Newport.

Pfc. Joseph J. Redeske, 23, of 640 Gibson St., Youngstown, who was previously reported missing in action, dies in a military hospital in North Africa of wounds suffered during battle in Italy.