Today is Tuesday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2005. There are 88 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2005. There are 88 days left in the year. On this date in 1957, the Space Age begins as the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit.
In 1777, George Washington's troops launch an assault on the British at Germantown, Pa., resulting in heavy American casualties. In 1822, the 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, is born in Delaware, Ohio. In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini confer at Brenner Pass in the Alps, where the Nazi leader seeks Italy's help in fighting the British. In 1957, the television series "Leave It to Beaver" premieres on CBS. In 1965, Pope Paul VI becomes the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western Hemisphere as he addresses the U.N. General Assembly. In 1970, rock singer Janis Joplin, 27, is found dead in her Hollywood hotel room. In 1978, funeral services are held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I. In 1980, some 520 people are forced to abandon the cruise ship Prisendam in the Gulf of Alaska after the Dutch luxury liner catches fire -- no deaths or serious injury result. In 1985, Islamic Jihad issues a statement saying it has killed American hostage William Buckley. (Fellow hostage David Jacobsen, however, later says he believes Buckley had died of torture injuries four months earlier.)
October 4, 1980: The Johnson Bronze Co. could be back in limited business with more than 100 persons on the payroll by the third week of October.
Trumbull County seems safely in Ronald Reagan's corner in the presidential race, judging from first half Vindicator straw poll results.
The Rev. Richard J. Steele Jr. is honored on the occasion of the 25th year of his ministry with Gibson Heights Second United Presbyterian Church.
October 4, 1965: Ninety-six elderly Trumbull Countians are spending their first weekend in the county's spacious new nursing home at the former Air Force radar base near Brookfield.
Mahoning County commissioners pass a resolution closing the courthouse at noon so that county employees and officials can attend the 1 p.m. funeral of Judge Clifford M. Woodside at First Christian Church.
October 4, 1955: Dr. Walter J. McCarthy of Youngstown, a specialist in child dentistry, dies following a heart attack at his office. He was 53.
A Youngstown Municipal Railway bus carrying about 40 passengers hits an oil-burning safety torch at Fifth and Lincoln avenues and catches fire. All passengers were able to file out of the bus safely and firemen extinguished the flames before they reached the fuel tank.
Youngstown will get better airline service at less cost to the taxpayers if the Civil Aeronautics Board approves sale of Lake Central Airlines to North Central Airlines, Arthur E.A. Mueler, chairman of North Central, tells the Chamber of Commerce airport committee.
October 4, 1930: Fred A Hartenstein, 73, of 38 LaClede Ave., twice mayor of Youngstown and twice treasurer of Mahoning County, dies in North Side Hospital. Thomas E. "Ed" Milliken, 71, former sheriff of Mahoning County, dies at the home of J.J. Hardgrove, 46 Ellenwood Ave., where he had made his home for many years.
Miss Louise Fordyce of Youngstown succeeds in her eight-year quest for the Berthelyn golf cup of the Huntingdon Valley Country Club in Philadelphia, playing a brilliant game. She had reached the final round of the annual tournament four times.
Two hundred members of the Youngstown Grotto, including the Grotto band, leave for Cincinnati to attend the state Grotto convention.
Bill Rope, Princeton coach, is opposed to night football, telling the State Interscholastic Athletic Association that it is burlesque, which puts "the interest of the spectator far ahead of the welfare of the player."