Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2009. There are 67 days left in the year. On this date in 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown goes on trial in Charles Town, Va., for his failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. (Brown is convicted of treason against Virginia, murder and conspiracy, and is hanged.)

In 1854, the “Charge of the Light Brigade” takes place during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600 men, facing hopeless odds, charge the Russian army and suffer heavy losses. In 1918, the Canadian steamship Princess Sophia founders off the coast of Alaska; some 350 people perish. In 1929, former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall is convicted in Washington, D.C., of accepting a $100,000 bribe from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny as part of the Teapot Dome scandal. (Fall is sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000; he ends up serving nine months.) In 1957, mob boss Albert Anastasia of “Murder Inc.” notoriety is shot to death in a barber shop inside the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York. In 1971, the U.N. General Assembly votes to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan. In 1983, a U.S.-led force invades Grenada at the order of President Ronald Reagan, who says the action is needed to protect U.S. citizens there. In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, S.C., claims that a black carjacker had driven off with her two young sons (Smith later confesses to drowning the children and is convicted of murder).

October 25, 1984: An official of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. of Tokyo says there’s a 50/50 chance the company will bring operations to unused aircraft assembly building that was built for the CAC Corp. At the Youngstown Municipal Airport. U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams gave company officials a tour of the building.

Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge David F. McLain upholds the firing of two Niles police officers by Mayor John P. Shaffer. The officers had been appointed in the final days of the Joseph Cicero administration.

The Youngstown Area United Way campaign is extended two weeks after falling almost $300,000 short of its $2.3 million goal.

October 25, 1969: Three companies say they will discontinue the use of monosodium glutamate (MSG) in baby foods although they believe he current public concern over whether it poses a threat to babies’ health is unwarranted.

A Youngstown youth who turned 18 after his arrest will be tried as an adult after a young woman and her uncle testifies that he robbed and kidnapped them and raped the young woman a month ago.

October 25, 1959: About 35 cars bearing signs and flags parade from a memorial Mass at Our Lady of Hungary Church through the city and down W. Federal Street to mark the third anniversary of the Hungarian revolt against Communist oppression.

Republican Edward Gilronan and Democrat Frank R. Franko are turning on the heat with advertisement, television appearances and speeches for the last week of a campaign that is expected to draw 60,000 voters to the polls.

October 25, 1934: A.P. Steckel, proposed president of Cold Metal Process Co. and inventor of the Steckel Process for rolling steel, peppers county Prosecutor Jesse H. Leighninger with 10 question implying that Leighninger “is protecting a local group of influential bank wreckers.” Leighninger replies that Steckel’s grievances concern a civil matter, not a criminal matter.

Frank Purnell, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube co., says steelworkers who want to see the industry rebound should be supporting people and groups that advocate policies of monetary stabilization and balanced budgets.