Today is Monday, Nov. 17, the 322nd day of 2008. There are 44 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Monday, Nov. 17, the 322nd day of 2008. There are 44 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, the NBC television network outrages football fans by cutting away from the closing minutes of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin a special presentation of “Heidi” on schedule. (Home viewers were prevented from seeing the Raiders come from behind to beat the Jets, 43-32.)

In 1558, Elizabeth I accedes to the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary. In 1800, Congress holds its first session in Washington in the partially completed Capitol building. In 1869, the Suez Canal opens in Egypt. In 1917, sculptor Auguste Rodin dies in Meudon, France, at age 77. In 1962, Washington’s Dulles International Airport is dedicated by President Kennedy. In 1970, the Soviet Union lands an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. In 1973, President Nixon tells Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, Fla.: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.” In 1987, a federal jury in Denver convicts two neo-Nazis and acquits two others of civil rights violations in the 1984 slaying of radio talk show host Alan Berg. In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, are killed when six militants open fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers are killed by police.

November 17, 1983: Christman Air System of Pittsburgh plans to provide one round-trip per day between Youngstown Municipal Airport and Pittsburgh, says Airport Manager Fred DeLuca.

Youngstown Mayor-elect Patrick J. Ungaro tells City Council he is “not interested at all” in a higher salary that was suggested by out-going Mayor George Vukovich. The mayor’s salary is $47,950, plus a car allowance of $2,700 a year.

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops offer a measure of freedom to married couples who use artificial birth control. In a pastoral letter reached by compromise, the bishops defend Pope Paul VI’s ban on all artificial contraception, but say couples who break the ban will not be turned away from the church or from Communion.

The late Irvin H. Ryan of Liberty Township, a long-time advocate for senior citizens, is one of 10 Ohioans inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.

November 17, 1968: Youngstown Superintendent of Schools Woodrow W. Zinser will meet with each of his school principals before the end of the year to help develop a response to the failure of a 12-mill levy on the November ballot.

Stock in the Youngstown Research & Development Co. rises as much as $14 a share, apparently on the strength of tests being conducted by the company on an experimental steel mill installed at J&L’s Stainless & Strip Division on Montgomery Street.

Barbara Lynn Carney, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Carney of Youngstown, is appointed an instructor in hearing and speech at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C.

November 17, 1958: Fire levels a barn and dairy plant at the William Rosen Home Dairy near Greenville, Pa. Damage is estimated at between $150,000 and $200,000.

Dr. Howard W. Jones, president of Youngstown University, confers honorary doctor degrees on three industrialists, Clifford F. Hood, William Haig Ramage and Walter E. Watson, at the university’s golden anniversary academic convocation.

William H. Kilcawley, secretary and treasurer of Standard Slag Corp., dies at his home, “Red Gate Farm” on Leffingwell Road.

November 17, 1933: Michael Ficocelli is associate conductor, with his brother Carmen, for the annual concert of the Youngstown Little Symphony Orchestra at South High School.

Youngstown is asking state approval for 14 civil works projects that will employe 1,005 men at $15 per week. Most of the jobs will be assigned by the State-City Employment Bureau.

Youngstown is third among Ohio’s 10 largest cities in per capita costs of wages and salaries paid by the cities. With a budget of $1.4 million, Youngstown’s per capita cost is $8.55.