Today is Wednesday, Nov. 12, the 317th day of 2008. There are 49 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 12, the 317th day of 2008. There are 49 days left in the year. On this date in 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal begins. (The Allies end up winning a major victory over the Japanese.)

In 1815, American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton is born in Johnstown, N.Y. In 1908, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun is born in Nashville, Ill. In 1927, Josef Stalin becomes the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Communist Party. In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders are sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal. In 1977, the city of New Orleans elects its first black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the winner of a runoff. In 1982, Yuri V. Andropov is elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee. In 1990, Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne.

November 12, 1983: Four people are killed and two others injured on snow-covered highways in western Pennsylvania. Dead are James and Patricia Lindt of Slippery Rock, their 15-year-old son, James Jr. and Laura Lynn Smith, 15, of Transfer.

Americans dwell too much on their failures and do not give themselves enough credit for their successes, Dr. George Beelen tells members of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society at its annual Founders Day banquet.

Ground is broken for Veterans Memorial Park in Craig Beach at Grandview and Davis roads.

November 12, 1968: Dr. James R. Williams resigns as chairman of the Child Welfare Board in Trumbull County as tensions mount in the county board of commissioners. County Commissioner Robert Hagan announces that he will not complete the last two years of his term, following the re-election of Commissioner Gary Thompson by a wide margin. Thompson has temporarily blocked construction of a new Children’s Home.

State Arson Investigator Michael J. Melillo is investigating the burning of a plane owned by the B&B Construction Co. and based at Elser Airport. The 1954 Beechcraft valued at $125,000 was destroyed.

November 12, 1958: Mrs. Elizabeth Houser of Girard, a national leader in the movement for women’s suffrage, dies at the age of 85.

Scores of military and veterans units proudly march up Federal Street in the annual Veterans Day parade before a crowd estimated at 15,000.

November 12, 1933: Thousands of Youngstowners line the streets for an Armistice Day parade, but the ranks of marching soldiers are thinner than in past years. Out of town marching units and bands fail to show up.

About 500 families in Youngs-town are receiving increased allowances for the Allied Council as the result of a state ruling that stopped the distribution of free milk and allowed the families to buy their own.