Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2009. There are 56 days left in the year. On this date in 1605, the “Gunpowder Plot” fails as Guy Fawkes is seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.

In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defies the law by attempting to vote for President Ulysses S. Grant. (Anthony is convicted by a judge and fined $100, but never pays the fine.) In 1895, George B. Selden of Rochester, N.Y., receives the first U.S. patent for an “improved Road Engine.” In 1912, Woodrow Wilson is elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third term in office as he defeats Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie. In 1946, Republicans capture control of both the Senate and the House in midterm elections. In 1968, Richard M. Nixon wins the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace. In 1974, Ella T. Grasso is elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband. In 1985, Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, dies at age 90; he is succeeded by Ezra Taft Benson.

November 5, 1984: Peter Pfit–zinger of Boston sets a Peace Race record covering the 25-kilometer course in 1:17.35, which he said was his best run since winning the marathon in the Olympic trials. Michelle Rupe is the top woman runner at 1:35.19, while her husband, Ted, former Maplewood athlete, is second among the men at 1:19.25.

A Youngstown patrolman shoots and kills an 18-year-old Indianola Ave. man who, police say, was struggling with an officer and trying to take his gun away.

Raymond Luc Levasseur, a bomber and terrorist who had been on the FBI’s most wanted list since 1977, is arrested in Deerfield, riding in a van with his wife and three children.

November 5, 1969: Republican Jack C. Hunter who upset incumbent Anthony B. Flask for mayor of Youngstown, says “law enforcement will be unfettered and politics will be driven out of City Hall and the police station.”

Atty. Leo Morley, who overcame the Democratic organization to win the nomination, noses out incumbent Youngstown Municipal Judge Nicholas Manos in a photo finish.

Youngstown school district voters approve a 7.3-mill operating levy and elect three new board members, Jennie Dalessandro, Alice Smeltzer and Louis J. Marciella.

A survey covering 65 Ohio colleges and universities finds that the average annual cost for an Ohio resident at a state college is $1,592 and at a private school, $2,455.

November 5, 1959: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. plans to put increasing emphasis on its spending program on modernizing and replacing its older facilities, including its Youngstown plants, says Chairman J.L. Mauthe.

The Youngstown University ROTC Honor Guard raises a Community Chest flag in Central Square to open the 1959-60 campaign, which has a goal of $1,229,023.

Mohammad Issac Khan, a Kent, Ohio, chemist, is seized by the FBI in Chicago, accused of pouring a flammable liquid on his wife and lighting it. She is in critical condition in a Kent Hospital.

November 5, 1934: Youngstown council President Myron Williams says that he will hold an open forum for discussion of electric rates.

Austintown relief families will get fresh relief beef at a new place, the Kroeck barn, next to the Kroeck store. About 60,000 pounds of beef are being distributed throughout Mahoning County.

Thomas A. Edison Jr., son of the late electrical wizard, will address an interstate Federal Housing meeting in New Castle that will be attended by hundreds of local FHA workers.