Today is Wednesday, Oct. 6, the 280th day of 2004. There are 86 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 6, the 280th day of 2004. There are 86 days left in the year. On this date in 1927, the era of talking pictures arrives with the opening of "The Jazz Singer," a movie starring Al Jolson that features both silent and sound-synchronized scenes.
In 1949, President Truman signs the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, totaling $1.3 billion in military aid to NATO countries. In 1949, American-born Iva Toguri D'Aquino, convicted of being Japanese wartime broadcaster "Tokyo Rose," is sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000. In 1973, war erupts in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria attack Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday. In 1976, in his second debate with Jimmy Carter, President Ford asserts there was "no Soviet domination of eastern Europe." (Ford later concedes he'd misspoken.) In 1979, Pope John Paul II, on a weeklong U.S. tour, becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House, where he is received by President Carter. In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade. In 1983, Cardinal Terence Cooke, the spiritual head of the Archdiocese of New York, dies at age 62. In 1994, in an address to a joint meeting of Congress, South African President Nelson Mandela warnx against the lure of isolationism, saying the post-Cold War focus of the United States should be on eliminating "tyranny, instability and poverty" across the globe. In 1999, in Mexico, furious rains send swollen rivers raging through the streets of the Gulf coast city of Villahermosa and causes mudslides; dozens of deaths are reported in eastern Mexico's coastal mountain ranges.
October 6, 1979: Two Warren priests, The Rev. Joseph Malik, pastor of St. Mary's Church, and Monsignor Sylvester Hladky, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, return from Philadelphia, where they met Pope John Paul. II. The priests agreed that the pope will leave the United States with a better understanding of the needs of the church in America.
Checks totaling $2,000 are introduced as evidence in the federal trial of former Mahoning County Sheriff Ray T. Davis and former Deputy Sgt. Ray Wallace, linking Wallace to an escort service provided by deputies to overweight trucks.
Niles Cty Council approves a $280,715 rebate to municipal electricity customers by a 5-1 vote.
October 6, 1964: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Rankin M. Gibson is the featured speaker at a meeting of the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers at the Voyager Motor Inn in Youngstown, explaining changes in Supreme Court rules. Lawyers from 10 Northeast Ohio counties attended.
Contracts are awarded for $153,367 for construction of a North Side branch library on Fifth Avenue that will be named for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice John H. Clark.
Four United Appeal divisions report pledges totaling $246,333 in the first report meeting of the 1965 drive, which has a goal of $1.6 million.
October 6, 1954: A delegation of approximately 50 Democrats form the Youngstown district attend the state convention in Columbus, where a party platform that expresses the political philosophy of Ohio's four-term governor, Frank J. Lausche, is adopted.
Three days of rainfall in the Youngstown district, totaling about 3 inches, increase the level of the Meander Reservoir by a foot, giving it about a month's more water supply than it had a year ago.
Democratic councilman Michael McCullion says gambling and prostitution are running unchecked in the 1st Ward and he demands that Police Chief Paul Cress lead a clean-up effort.
October 6, 1929: Three Indian bones, including a partial skull, are found on the farm of Frederick Gelbke, about 13 miles north of Youngstown on Belmont Ave. The bones, which were found with some fragments of pottery, are estimated to be between 500 and 600 years old.
The city of Campbell observes a holiday, with merchants closing their shops and workmen leaving their jobs, for the formal opening and dedication of the beautiful new Memorial High School stadium. Memorial's team defeated Farrell, 7-0, in the inaugural contest.
McDonald's new $450,000 high school building is formally dedicate d with 1,500 people attending the ceremony in the school auditorium.