Today is Wednesday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2003. There are 70 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2003. There are 70 days left in the year. On this date in 1962, President Kennedy announces an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.
In 1797, French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet. In 1836, Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas. In 1883, the original Metropolitan Opera House in New York holds its grand opening with a performance of Gounod's "Faust." In 1954, West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 1968, Apollo 7 returns safely, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1973, Spanish cellist, conductor and composer Pablo Casals dies in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, at age 96. In 1979, the U.S. government allows the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment -- a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.
October 22, 1978: Youngstown State University reinstates the tradition of having a homecoming king and queen, crowning Chester Tabaka of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and Jane Moore, an independent. It's the first time since 1971 there's been a homecoming queen and since 1954 for a king.
A New Castle, Pa., seaman is among 11 crewmen listed as missing from the Coast Guard cutter Cuyahoga, which collided with an Argentinean freighter on Chesapeake Bay. Missing is Fireman Apprentice James L. Hellyer.
Republican George V. Voinovich says he was a "biological Democrat" until age 21 when he decided there was a difference between the two parties. Twenty-one years later, the Cuyahoga County commissioner is running for lieutenant governor on the same ticket with Ohio's Mr. Republican, Gov. James A. Rhodes.
October 22, 1963: Two unmasked bandits enter the Brownlee Woods home of a Struthers barber, bind and gag him, his wife and a tenant, and escape with $200 in cash, $1,000 in savings bonds and barber tools. The robbers gained entry to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Faustino D'Ercole by posing as delivery men.
The Greater Youngstown AFL-CIO Council endorses Anthony B. Flask, the Democratic candidate for mayor of Youngstown, and gives its support to the Youngstown school district's 3-mill levy. It opposes State Issue 1, which would raise $250 million for higher education in Ohio.
Mrs. Charles B. Cushwa Jr. is appointed to fill the unexpired term of Mrs. John W. Ford on the Mahoning County Welfare Advisory Board. Mrs. Ford, who resigned after 19 years on the board due to ill health, had recommended to county commissioners three women as possible successors, Mrs. Cushwa being one of them.
October 22, 1953: Youngstown City Hall workers are apparently resigned to not getting a pay hike before election day, but say they expect a 10 percent hike by year's end. Mayor Charles Henderson says all the city can afford is 5 percent.
Five teen-agers from Wickliffe are ordered to appear in juvenile court to answer charges of breaking and entering the home of Sam Camens, president of Local 1330, United Steel Workers. Camens had tried to handle the situation himself and get the boys to make restitution of the $92 they took without involving the courts or police.
Advertisement: Clever rubber Halloween masks, some spooky, some comic: Children's, 25 cents; youth, 39 cents; adults, 49 cents. All gaily colored. G.C. Murphy Co., Federal and Phelps Streets.
October 22, 1928: Alverna Bennett, the 10-year-old Masury girl who had both legs cut off by a street car when she was less than a year old, leaves for Cleveland to enter vaudeville. She can walk and dance on her hands, turn cartwheels and is an accomplished singer.
Attorney Leroy Manchester, principal speaker at the groundbreaking of the N. Watt St. grade elimination project, speaks of a new and united Youngstown, where the elimination of railroad crossings will produce a city without physical boundaries and in which the artificial barriers of prejudice will be forgotten.