Today is Sunday, Oct. 31, the 305th day of 2004. 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

Today is Sunday, Oct. 31, the 305th day of 2004. 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 1795, English poet John Keats is born in London. 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 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 of Iran, proclaims himself the rightful successor to the Peacock Throne. In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. In 1993, movie director Federico Fellini dies in Rome at age 73; actor River Phoenix dies in Los Angeles at age 23. In 1994, a Chicago-bound American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in northern Indiana, killing all 68 people aboard. In 1998, a genetic study is released suggesting President Thomas Jefferson did in fact father at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings. In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashes off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.
October 31, 1979: The Youngstown Area United Way must raise slightly more than $709,000 by Friday to reach its $2.2 million goal, but Donald W. McGowan, general chairman, is confident the goal will be met.
Struggling to keep pace with inflation, Trumbull County public libraries will limit new book acquisitions to the bare minimum.
A number of religious, social service, business and labor leaders band together to help win approval of the Schenley Park housing project, an issue they consider crucial to the city's economic, moral and social well-being.
October 31, 1964: More than 10,000 children knock at nearly all Mahoning County doors asking for coins to help the United Nations Children's Fund. George Barry, UNICEF chairman, asked residents to spread their coin donations throughout the evening so that no child would be refused.
Bishop Emmet M. Walsh dedicates the magnificent new St. Christine Church. The $585,000 church is among the first in the Youngstown Diocese to be built according to the new liturgical decree of Vatican Council. Pastors of four parishes from which land was taken to create the parish -- St. Brendan, St. Charles, St. Patrick and St. Dominic -- participate.
Larry Singer, a senior at Rayen School, is elected president of the Northeastern Ohio Distributive Education Association during a conference in Akron.
October 31, 1954: Mahoning County election officials predict a low voter turnout, with only 75,000 to 80,000 voters casting ballots.
Wilbur Shaw, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and three-time winner of the 500-mile race, and two companions are killed in a plane crash near Decatur, Ind.
Four more polio cases, including a 28-year-old Berlin Center man, are admitted to Youngstown hospitals.
WFMJ-TV's new 175,000-watt signal blankets the district's five counties and has been received as far away as Buffalo, about 150 air miles from the Youngstown transmitter.
October 31, 1929: Responsibility for the stupendous drop in stock market prices is attributed to President Hoover and other chieftains of the Republican Party by Sen. Robinson of Arkansas. The former Democratic vice presidential candidate says the Coolidge administration encouraged the recent speculative market with over-confident statements and blamed the present administration for not taking steps to check the recession when it came.
The United States Steel Corp. announces acquisition of Columbia Steel Corp. of San Francisco for approximately $46.6 million.
Five men and four women are elected by students of Youngstown College as members of the student council. They are Harry Gail, president; Bessie Faulkner, vice president; Ann Hoffman, secretary and treasurer; Ray Werner, Ilajean Wales, Francis Herman, Robert Mullen, Wayne Grinnen and Esma Smith.
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