Today is Sunday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2001. There are 71 days left in the year.

Today is Sunday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2001. There are 71 days left in the year.
On this date in 1879, Thomas Edison invents a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides," is launched in Boston's harbor. In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, is killed. In 1944, during World War II, U.S. troops capture the German city of Aachen. In 1945, women in France are allowed to vote for the first time. In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clash in their fourth and final presidential debate. In 1966, more than 140 people, mostly children, are killed when a coal waste landslide engulfs a school and several houses in south Wales. In 1967, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters march in Washington, D.C. In 1971, President Nixon nominates Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1976, Saul Bellow wins the Nobel Prize for literature, the first American honored since John Steinbeck in 1962.
October 21, 1976: A Portage County commissioner and a Kent insurance man plead innocent to indictments returned by the grand jury that investigated the theft of 200 sides of beef from the county home.
Feathers fly in council chambers when the agenda turns to the sanitary habits of Youngstown's pigeons. City building commissioner William Carter asks lawmakers for $4,000 to clean up pigeon deposits on city hall and the police station.
Ira Thomas Associates Inc., advertising and public relations firm, announces the appointment of five new employees in its expansion program. They are Bob Grimm, Sue Pittman, Jeff Salzman, Diane Walther and John Chlebus Jr.
October 21, 1961: A waitress at the Hi-Spot Bar, Wick and Bissell Aves., and four teen-agers are arrested for violating state liquor laws. State liquor agents said the boys, 18 and 19 years old, were served high-powered beer. Judge Don L. Hanni fines them each $5, saying hardly anyone can tell the difference between high-power and low-power beer.
Some 400 retired steelworkers at Local Union 1331, United Steelworkers of America, many with their wives, hear a report on national progress in health care for senior citizens. James C. O'Brien of Washington says the aim is to get some sort of Social Security benefits in the form of medical aid for older persons.
Arrangements are being made for a special ceremony in Washington for the final signing of the $14 million West Branch Reservoir following approval by Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
October 21, 1951: President Truman appoints General Mark Clark to be a full-fledged ambassador to the pope, stirring up protests from his own Baptist and other Protestant churches.
Manly Fleischmann, defense production administrator and head of the National Production Authority, will come to Youngstown to launch a national scrap collection drive.
Cuyahoga Sheriff Joseph M. Sweeney, 71, has been at work every day -- seven days a week -- for 10 years, except for six days off for injuries suffered in a fall and five days at the out-of-state funeral of a relative.
October 21, 1926: Eugene V. Debs, the veteran socialist leader whose turbulent career included a term in prison for obstructing the draft, dies in Chicago. He was 74.
The Mahoning bar grievance committee investigating alleged illegal practices of certain lawyers hears several witnesses in the private chambers of Judge David G. Jenkins, after which members say nothing will be released for publication because they wish to harm no one.
Youngstown patrolmen tell acting police chief Leroy Goodwin that Oscar Jones, who confessed to the murder of George Brown, was injured in a fight with other prisoners. His lawyer, Fred Warnock, alleges that detectives beat a confession out of his client.