Years Ago
Today is Friday, Oct. 23, the 296th day of 2009. There are 69 days left in the year. On this date in 1983, 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines, are killed in a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces kills 58 paratroopers.
In 1707, the first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, holds its first meeting. In 1864, forces led by Union Gen. Samuel R. Curtis repel Confederate Gen. Sterling Price’s army in the Battle of Westport in Missouri. In 1915, tens of thousands of women march in New York City, demanding the right to vote. In 1942, during World War II, Britain launches a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt. In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.
October 23, 1984: For the second time in three years, Mahoning County residents who are months or years behind in support payments will pay up or go to jail. Judge John Leskovyansky says citations have been prepared for 513 people who are in arrears.
Former defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer is named head coach of the Cleveland Browns, replacing Sam Rutigliano.
October 23, 1969: Food service to 4,000 children in Youngstown elementary schools is not available because of a walkout by kitchen employees at the central packaging kitchen in the former Butler School.
Record low temperatures, as low as 17 degrees, sweep into the Mahoning Valley, accompanied by the area’s first snowfall of the season.
October 23, 1959: The Civil Service Commission says a Youngstown man who was in a $7,283 a year job as superintendent of construction for the city can take the test, but if a Vindicator report that he has been arrested more than a dozen times, most often for assault, is accurate, he won’t be given the job regardless of the test results.
Youngstown University senior Lois Fiedor of Niles is chosen “Engineers Sweetheart” for the first annual Engineers Ball at the Idora Ballroom.
October 23, 1934: The charmed life of Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd comes to an end in a hail of gunfire on the Columbiana County farm of Mrs. Ellen Conkle, five miles north of East Liverpool. His body is taken to the Sturgis Mortuary in East Liverpool, where local police pose with it for photographs.
Some 350 business, building and labor men meet at the Youngstown YMCA to show their support for a Federal Housing Administration program that would bring as much as $1 million to the area for home building and modernization.