Today is Saturday, Oct. 4, the 278th day of 2008. There are 88 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, Oct. 4, the 278th day of 2008. There are 88 days left in the year. On this date in 1957, the Space Age begins as the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.

In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini confer at Brenner Pass in the Alps. In 1957, Jimmy Hoffa is elected president of the Teamsters Union. In 1958, the first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service is begun by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) with flights between London and New York. In 1965, Pope Paul VI becomes the first pope 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, Calif., hotel room. In 1976, agriculture secretary Earl Butz resigns in the wake of a controversy over a joke he’d made about blacks. In 1978, a funeral mass is held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I. In 1980, some 520 people are forced to abandon the cruise ship Prinsendam in the Gulf of Alaska after the Dutch luxury liner catches fire; no deaths or serious injury result. (The ship capsizes and sinks a week later.)

October 4, 1983: The Youngstown Park and Recreation Commission expects quick City Council approval of a 99-year lease of Lake Milton land for a multi-million dollar recreation and condominium complex.

Mahoning County Commissioner George Bindas says commissioners are prepared to give Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. a supplemental allocation of about $67,000 to finish out the year, which is about a quarter of what the sheriff had asked for.

Fish caught in Mill Creek Park lakes pose no health danger due to heavy metals, a report by researchers from Youngstown State University and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concludes.

October 4, 1968: General Motors Fisher Body Division announces that it will build a huge steel stamping plant adjacent to the Lordstown Chevrolet Assembly Plant. It will be the fourth Fisher Body stamping plant in Ohio.

The Vindicator straw poll shows former Gov. George C. Wallace running a close second in the Struthers-Lowellville area behind Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, the Democratic nominee.

Striking steelworkers at Commercial Shearing and Stamping Co. vote unanimously to accept a new wage agreement and end a two-day strike.

October 4, 1958: A 19-year-old Greenville, Pa., motorist is killed after his car smashes into a tree in Route 88 in Vernon Township after a police chase from Greenville into Ohio that reached speeds of 120 mph. The chase started after a Pennsylvania state patrolman saw the car speeding through Greenville.

Army Pvt. Elvis Presley arrives in Friedberg, Germany, where he’ll serve as a tank crewman with the Seventh Army.

The Greater Youngstown Area Community Chest opens its campaign with a goal of $1.2 million, that will be used to support 39 Red Feather agencies.

October 4, 1933: A young bandit implicates a third Youngstown police officer in a burglary ring during the trial of one patrolman charged with robbery and burglary.

The Eclat Club at the North Side unit of Youngstown Hospital, composed of surgeons who served behind the front lines during the World War, holds its 14th annual meeting, sharing surgical research and papers.

Empire Steel Corp. plants, including three Niles sheet mill plants, will be auctioned at the courthouse in Mansfield.