Today is Wednesday, Oct. 15, the 288th day of 2003. There are 77 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 15, the 288th day of 2003. There are 77 days left in the year. On this date in 1917, Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer who had spied for the Germans, is executed by a French firing squad outside Paris.
In 1914, the Clayton Antitrust Act is passed. In 1928, the German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin" lands in Lakehurst, N.J., completing its first commercial flight across the Atlantic. In 1937, the Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have and Have Not" is first published. In 1945, the former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed. In 1946, Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisons himself hours before he was to have been executed. In 1966, President Johnson signs a bill creating the Department of Transportation. In 1969, peace demonstrators stage activities across the country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part of a moratorium against the Vietnam War. In 1976, in the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole face off in Houston. In 1990, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 15, 1978: Vice President Walter Mondale, on a campaign swing through the Mahoning Valley, says that incumbent Charles J. Carney proved his value to the Valley by his role in forming the Congressional Steel Caucus.
Frustrated in its efforts to work out some political problems, ICX Aviation Inc. is being besieged with unacceptable offers of financing for its proposed $150 million aircraft assembly plant in the Mahoning Valley, says J. Campbell Bryce, who is attempting to put together a financing package.
The Youngstown district's troubled industrial plants, especially the steel makers, are running into a costly shortage of railroad cars, which is making it difficult to ship finished products and bring in raw materials.
October 15, 1963: Richard Kosmo, 25, of Oak Hill Ave., is stabbed five times by two hitchhikers who attempted to rob him at Belmont and Madison avenues.
Brosel Alonzo "Bud" Wills, 59, veteran chief of the Hubbard Volunteer Fire Department, dies of a heart attack at his home, shortly after arriving home from fighting a series of grass fires plaguing the area.
Youngstown Mayor Harry Savasten announces that the city's fall rubbish cleanup will begin Oct. 21 in the Brier Hill area and will end Oct. 28 on the city's West Side.
Bricker and Bricker Construction Co. of Salem is awarded the contract to build an $800,000 women's dormitory on the campus of Hiram College. It will be called Miller Hall and will house 152 co-eds.
October 15, 1953: Some 350 Protestant ministers from the Youngstown district get a preview of "Martin Luther," the filmed story of the Roman Catholic priest who denounced the Pope and lit the fires of the Protestant Reformation, at the Warner Theater downtown. The film received nothing but praise from the clergymen.
Six Youngstown College co-eds are vying for the honor of being crowned Homecoming Queen. They are Virginia Shelar, Patricia Oggy, Joan Lantz, Leona Gilboy, Marilyn Korody and Lucille D'Antonio.
Dr. Karl Taylor Compton, internationally known atomic scientist, gives the main address at the dedication of Freeman Science Hall on the campus of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa.
October 15, 1928: The German dirigible Graf Zeppelin, bringing the first transatlantic air passengers to the United States, flies over Washington, D.C., before heading for its first port of call, the naval air station at Lakehurst, N.J. The dirigible will have been in flight for 110 hours and covered 6,500 when it berths.
WKBN radio in Youngstown is assigned a new frequency, 570 kilocycles, under modification of a ruling that had assigned it to 1430 kilocycles. Listeners will receive WKBN broadcasts somewhere between 80 and 100 on the radio dial, depending on the design of the set.
Due to the increasing price of oil, the Sebring Manufacturing Corp., composed of the French and Saxon China plants, is experimenting with coal to fire its kilns. Meanwhile Sebring Pottery, Limoges China, Crescent China and the Salem China are experimenting with methods of using gas more efficiently.