Today is Tuesday, Oct. 21, the 295th day of 2008. There are 71 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 21, the 295th day of 2008. There are 71 days left in the year. On this date in 1805, a British fleet commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, is killed.

In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” is christened in Boston’s harbor. In 1879, Thomas Edison perfects a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. In 1917, members of the 1st Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, become the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I. In 1944, during World War II, U.S. troops capture the German city of Aachen. In 1959, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York opens to the public. In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clash in their fourth and final presidential debate in New York. In 1966, more than 140 people, mostly children, are killed when a coal waste landslide engulfs a school and several houses in Aberfan, Wales.

October 21, 1983: Jessica Savitch, NBC news correspondent, launches the Junior League of Youngstown Town Hall lecture series at Powers Auditorium.

After failing to make any profits for three years, the Trumbull County Fair Board has decided to drop the annual Octoberfest.

Mahoning County Democratic Chairman Don. L. Hanni Jr. and Republican Party Chairman Dr. William Binning exchange barbs over how news of a federal investigation into primary election results was announced. Hanni refers to Binning as “a sneaking monkey.”

October 21, 1968: John L. Palermo, 68, Mahoning County commissioner for nearly 12 years, dies of Hodgkin’s disease in Ohio Valley General Hospital, McKees Rocks, Pa.

Lester Livingston, 76, a former Youngstown merchant and the second generation of his family to be successful selling women’s wear, dies at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Two thugs invade the Liberty Township home of Dr. H.E. Mathay, bind and gag the physician and his wife, and make off with money, old coins and jewelry.

October 21, 1958: Presiding Judge Herman M. Rodgers asks Mercer County Sheriff J. Richard Knowles to resign or face criminal charges for allowing a Sharon contractor freedom from jail while he was serving a five-day sentence for drunken driving.

Seven buildings in the Westlake’s Crossing area are ordered to be torn down as unsafe by city health, building and fire officials

J.L. Mauthe, chairman of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., says the outlook for steel operations and sales has brightened and he predicts the fourth quarter will be the best for 1958.

October 21, 1933: The Mahoning Bar Association will not endorse any candidate for municipal court judge, says David Jones, president of the bar.

Classie Finney, 36, of Northwood Avenue, Youngstown, dies of burns after her clothes caught fire while she was pouring kerosene on a cook stove to start a fire for breakfast.

Sen. George H. Roberts, a former Youngstown city councilman and a member of the Ohio Senate, shoots himself to death at a home in McDonald, to which he had recently moved.