Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2009. There are 71 days left in the year. On this date in 1959, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public in New York.

In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” is christened in Boston’s harbor. In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Adm. Horatio Nelson defeats a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, is killed. 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 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. In 1967, the Israeli destroyer INS Eilat is sunk by Egyptian missile boats near Port Said; 47 Israeli crew members are lost. In 1969, beat poet and author Jack Kerouac dies in St. Petersburg, Fla., at age 47. In 1971, President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1999, France’s highest court upholds the conviction of Maurice Papon, the former Vichy official who’d fled France rather than face prison for his role in sending Jews to Nazi death camps; Papon is captured in Switzerland and deported the following day. (Papon ends up serving three years of a 10-year sentence; he died in 2007.) In 2004, an Associated Press poll finds President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry locked in a statistical tie for the popular vote. Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove, 21, dies hours after being shot in the eye with a pepper-spray pellet fired by police trying to control a raucous crowd outside Fenway Park, where the Boston Red Sox had won the American League championship. The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Houston Astros 5-2 to take Game 7 of the National League championship series. In 2008, dozens of members of the Mongol motorcycle gang are arrested by federal agents in six states on a variety of charges following a three-year investigation in which undercover agents infiltrated the group. Iraq’s Cabinet decides to ask the United States for changes to the draft agreement that would keep American troops there for three more years.

October 21, 1984: A New York couple makes the high bid of $385,000 for the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. carousel at Idora Park. It will be installed in a park near the Brooklyn Bridge.

Linda Myers is queen and John Sasse is king of Youngstown State University’s homecoming.

A retrospective of work by James Lepore, longtime professor of art at Youngstown State University, closes at the Butler Institute of American Art.

October 21, 1969: One of nine coeds will reign over Youngstown State University’s homecoming. They are Rosemary Schaffer, Janice Santangelo, Mary Jane Zappia, Patricia Petretic, Mary Ann Stanecki, Evelyn Sipe, Patty Richards, Penny Laasko, and Laura Trucksis.

Gunshots are fired at two Stony’s Trucking Co. drivers as the wildcat strike of independent steel haulers continues against the North Jackson-based trucking company.

Fifth Ward Councilman Jack Hunter returns from a trip to Washington with word that a new and larger West Side branch post office is in Youngstown’s near future.

October 21, 1959: Six Youngs-town University coeds, all perspective school teachers, are vying for homecoming queen. They are Davene Ucello, Susanne Morosky, Betty Fabry, Bernadette Polisso, Joanne Messina and Lois Slicker.

Ohio Bell Telephone Co. will spend $202,500 to enlarge its central office buildings in Youngstown, Lowellville and Columbiana.

Planning Director Edwin H. Folk Jr. says improvement of public and private facilities in the heart of downtown and clearance of surrounding deteriorated areas will be needed if the central business district is to benefit from the economic growth forecast for the Youngstown area in the next 20 years.

October 21, 1934: A price war in Pittsburgh has gasoline selling at 12 cents a gallon.

A conference meeting in Cincinnati on the selection and tenure of judges in Ohio recommends that judges be appointed by the governor from a list prepared by judges and laymen.

A crowd of 10,000 enthusiastic fans jam Harrison Field to see Sheet & Tube battle to a scoreless draw with Canton Espanois in a battle of the undefeated in the Akron District Class A Soccer League.