Glancing Backwards, 12/18/09

Published: December 18, 2009

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Today is Friday, Dec. 18, the 352nd day of 2009. There are 13 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Glancing Backward Locally:

25 years ago - 1984

The Statesmen Barbershop Chorus has been caroling about the Valley in several locations this holiday season.

The Towanda Musical Society caroled through the halls of Memorial Hospital and its Skilled Nursing Unit, as well as at the senior citizens' apartments in North Towanda.

The Towanda Black Knight wrestling team captains this season are David Blascak, Mark Barto and Jay Abbott.

50 years ago - 1959

The new electric organ will be dedicated at the Sunday services of the Hornbrook Methodist Church.

At the December meeting of the Wysox Cub Scout Pack 50, a Bobcat pin was awarded to William Westbrook and a Wolf badge and gold and silver arrows to William Shoemaker.

St. Agnes High School is hosting the Rebels of St. Patrick's of Scranton in basketball tonight.

75 years ago ­­­­- 1934

The Rome Community Association has been formed with C.M. Holmes as president.

Horace Horton has taken over the Mecca Gas Station on South Main Street.

Almost 300 men gathered in the dining room of the Wilbur House to pay tribute to Dr. Donald Guthrie.

Elsewhere on this date:

In 1787, New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1892, Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.

In 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered secret preparations for Nazi Germany to invade the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.)

In 1980, former Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin died at age 76.

Ten years ago: In St. Martinville, La., the last of the federal immigration detainees who'd taken a jail warden and three others hostage for almost a week surrendered.

Five years ago: The former Iraqi general known as "Chemical Ali," Ali Hassan al-Majid, went before a judge in the first investigative hearings of former members of his regime.

One year ago: A U.N. court in Tanzania convicted former Rwandan army Col. Theoneste Bagosora of genocide and crimes against humanity for masterminding the killings of more than half a million people in a 100-day slaughter in 1994.

Today's Birthdays: Television writer-producer Hal Kanter is 91. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark is 82. Actor Roger Smith is 77. Blues musician Lonnie Brooks is 76. Actor Roger Mosley is 71. Rock singer-musician Keith Richards is 66. Writer-director Alan Rudolph is 66. Movie producer-director Steven Spielberg is 63.

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