Years Ago

October 17, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2009. There are 75 days left in the year. On this date in 1989, an earthquake measuring magnitude 7.1 strikes northern California, killing 63 people and causing $6 billion worth of damage. (The quake hits just before Game 3 of the World Series between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park; the Series is suspended until Oct. 27, at which time the A’s resume their four-game sweep of the Giants.)

In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrender to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a turning point of the Revolutionary War. In 1807, Britain declares it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of whether they hold U.S. citizenship. In 1907, Guglielmo Marconi begins offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland. In 1919, Radio Corporation of America is chartered.

October 17, 1984: Officials of Avtec Corp., a California-based company that has developed a lightweight, six-passenger plane, will visit the area to discuss a possible takeover of the Commuter Aircraft Corp. plant at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Trustees of the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. approve the purchase of the PY & A industrial spur in Austintown, which will assure available rail transportation for four industrial plants.

October 17, 1969: A Youngstown couple who say they were bilked on the purchase of a used car in 1967 when they were sold a 1967 model that had a 1965 engine and had a false title, file a $5 million suit against a Youngstown dealer and a Niles finance company.

Lt. Co. Bernard Knapic, 39, of Youngs-town is reported killed in the crash of an AC119 aircraft in Vietnam. He had been stationed in Vietnam since January.

October 17, 1959: Youngstown remembers Gen. George C. Marshall’s visit to Youngstown in 1950 when he opened the Mahoning County Red Cross fund campaign. Marshall died at Walter Reed Hospital at the age of 78.

Gov. Michael V. DiSalle announces a new state policy for relocating utility lines that will save Youngstown more than $2 million in expressway construction costs.

October 17, 1934: A Salem couple, Mr. and Mrs. George Meiter, aged 64 and 59 respectively, are swindled out of their life savings of $6,100 by two fast-talking strangers who came to their house and talked them into withdrawing the money from the bank to invest in a Texas oil well.

Youngstown’s most prominent men are among 350 guests at Youngstown’s first gridiron dinner, sponsored by the Youngstown Chapter of the American Newspaper Guild, and held at the Stambaugh Auditorium.

Sharon City Council asks U.S. Army engineers to make another survey of the Shenango River to determine if it should be part of a Mahoning-Beaver River canal to the Ohio River.