Today is Thursday, Oct. 16, the 290th day of 2008. There are 76 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, Oct. 16, the 290th day of 2008. There are 76 days left in the year. On this date in 1978, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chooses Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to be the new pope; he takes the name John Paul II.

In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster is born in Hartford, Conn. In 1793, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, is beheaded. In 1859, abolitionist John Brown leads a group of about 20 men in a failed raid on Harper’s Ferry, Va. In 1916, Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic, in Brooklyn, N.Y. (The clinic ends up being raided by police and Sanger is arrested.) In 1946, 10 Nazi war criminals condemned during the Nuremberg trials is hanged. In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis begins as President Kennedy is informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. In 1964, China sets off its first atomic bomb, codenamed “596,” on the Lop Nur Test Ground. In 1968, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos spark controversy at the Mexico City Olympics by giving “black power” salutes during a victory ceremony after they’d won gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race.

October 16, 1983: The Ohio Lotto, the weekly big-stakes game, is under pressure to change its payoff system as some critics charge that spreading the winnings over 20 years can be unfair to older winners.

The Youngstown Board of Education begins going over its recently completed Facilities Master Plan.

The 7-Eleven name on some Youngstown area convenience stores will disappear. A spokesman for the Southland Corp. says the company is pulling out of northeastern Ohio.

October 16, 1968: Candidates for Homecoming Queen at Youngstown State University pose with Pete the Penguin and his keeper, Henry Dalverny. The candidates are Florita Stubbs, Karen Conklin, Madeline Banjo, Margie Sfara, Becky Hall and Sherri Rider. Not present, Anita Morrison.

A majority of Boardman police have withdrawn cards of intent to be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

George C. Wallace wins a place on Ohio’s Nov. 5 ballot and for the first time in more than a generation Ohioans will be offered a recognized third-party presidential candidate.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. reports it earned $2.5 million or 24 cents a share on sales of $171 million.

October 16, 1958: More than 750 workers and leaders of the Greater Youngstown Area Community Chest kickoff the annual fund-raising campaign with a dinner at the YMCA.

Southern political leaders have only themselves to blame for anti-Semitic terrorism, Harry Golden, national famed Jewish newspaperman and author, tells nearly 600 people during a lecture at Rodef Sholom Temple at a lecture sponsored by the Temple Brotherhood.

Two new cases of paralytic polio, a man and a woman, both in their 20s, are reported by Youngstown hospitals.

Dr. Leonard Blum, city health commissioner, promises to put into effect as soon as possible a new inoculation program adopted by the Mahoning County Medical Society that will provide free polio shots for the indigent.

October 16, 1933: Ground is broken on the new Wick Avenue site of the First Christian Church during an impressive ceremony attended by 200 church members. Atty. G.F. Hammond, principle speaker, declares, “It is a privilege as well as duty to belong to the church.”

A 20-year-old blonde gungirl holds up Bernard McBride, an attendant at a gasoline station at 856 Mahoning Ave.