Today is Friday, Oct. 31, the 304th day of 2003. There are 61 days left in the year. This is

Today is Friday, Oct. 31, the 304th day of 2003. There are 61 days left in the year. This is Halloween. On this date in 1517, Martin Luther posts the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
In 1864, Nevada becomes the 36th state. In 1926, magician Harry Houdini dies in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix. In 1941, the U.S. Navy destroyer Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland with the loss of 115 lives, even though the United States had not yet entered World War II. In 1956, Rear Adm. G.J. Dufek becomes the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson orders a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hopes for fruitful peace negotiations. In 1980, Reza Pahlavi, eldest son of the late shah, proclaims himself the rightful successor to the Peacock Throne.
October 31, 1978: Democrat Richard F. Celeste will carry Trumbull County by 9.000 votes over Gov. James A. Rhodes, The Vindicator's straw poll indicates.
Advertisement: You are invited to see and participate in the first area demonstration of the Radio Shack TRS-80 personal microcomputer system. It is the most impressive electronic breakthrough of our time for business, professional and academic use. At the Holiday Inn on Belmont Ave.
The Youngstown State Penguins' 22-17 loss to Villanova was "disheartening, but it's not the end of the season for us," says YSU's head coach, Bill Narduzzi, speaking to the Curbstone Coaches. The loss ended a 10-game winning streak stretching to last season.
October 31, 1963: A new effort is being made to create a true image of the Lake Erie-Ohio River Interconnecting Waterway as part of a national water transportation system, with benefits to the whole country.
Walter H. Paulo, president of the Isaly Dairy Co., is elected volunteer chairman of Mahoning Chapter, American Red Cross, by directors. Grant E. Spon is named first vice chairman.
Gen. Paul D. Harkins, America's top military commander in South Vietnam, says at least 1,000 of the 15,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam will be on their way home within two months.
October 31, 1953: "If any bus company or trucking company serviced its equipment in the manner used by the city of Youngstown, it could not operate," L.F. Donnell and Raymond S. Falls, co-chairmen of the Youngstown First Committee, says. One of the things that would be financed by a bond issue appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot would be a central equipment garage.
A 13-year-old youngster, whose juvenile court record dates to when he was 7 years old, is sentenced to the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster by Juvenile Court Judge Henry P. Beckenback. He was picked up most recently for shoplifting slacks at G.M. McKelvey Co. store.
"Do you want to return to the old days when houses of prostitution were running wide open throughout the downtown area with teenagers as regular customers?" asks Mayor Charles P. Henderson in a campaign speech.
October 31, 1928: Richard Hudnut, bother of the Rev. W. H. Hudnut, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, dies in Nice, France. Hudnut, a former New York druggist who became a millionaire through the manufacture of perfume, owned a villa at the French resort.
About 600 diamonds have been recovered from the ground around the wreckage of a mail plane near Franklin, Pa., but a number are still unaccounted for. The diamonds were among the cargo on the plane piloted by William C. Hopson, who was killed when his plane crashed and burned. The cargo was valued at $100,000.
S.S. Booker, speaking over WKBN radio in Youngstown, says press reports of a pronounced defection of Negro voters from the Republican ranks are "bunk." Booker predicts 85 percent of the Negroes in Mahoning County and the state of Ohio will vote for Herbert Hoover.