Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Oct. 31, the 304th day of 2009. There are 61 days left in the year. This is Halloween. A reminder: Daylight-saving time ends Sunday at 2 a.m. local time. Clocks go back one hour. On this date in 1517, Martin Luther posts the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

In 1864, Nevada becomes the 36th state. In 1926, magician Harry Houdini dies in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix. In 1941, the Navy destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland with the loss of some 100 lives, even though the United States had not yet entered World War II. In 1959, a former U.S. Marine shows up at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to declare he is renouncing his American citizenship so he can live in the Soviet Union. His name: Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu takes the oath of office as the first president of South Vietnam’s second republic. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hopes for fruitful peace negotiations. In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. In 1994, a Chicago-bound American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in northern Indiana, killing all 68 people aboard. In 1996, a Brazilian Fokker-100 jetliner crashes in Sao Paulo, killing all 96 people on board and three on the ground. In 1998, a genetic study is released suggesting President Thomas Jefferson did in fact father at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings.

October 31, 1984: U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, R-17th, says the Steel Stabilization Act signed by President Ronald Reagan could be the most significant legislation the steel industry has ever seen.

The Haber Furniture Co. property at the east end of downtown is no longer the federal government’s preferred site for a new federal office building in Youngstown, a federal official says.

October 31, 1969: Youngstown Bishop James W. Malone endorses renewal of Youngstown’s 7.3-mill public school levy.

A 52-year-old driver for Independent Radio Taxi, is dragged from his cab, beaten, kicked and robbed of his wallet and taxi by two young men on the East Side.

Mrs. Margaret Clingan Wick, 79, widow of industrialist George L. Wick, dies in North Side Hospital, where she had been a patient since Sept. 26.

October 31, 1959: Davene Ucello, 19, a junior in business administration, will reign as queen of Youngstown University’s Homecoming as the Penguins host New Haven State College’s Owls.

Kedgwin H. Powell, 67, a Youngstown attorney for 33 years and city police chief during the Ku Klux Klan era, dies in a West Palm Beach Hospital.

The total absentee and disabled persons ballots cast in Mahoning County passes 1,000 by the deadline, Bryon Wade, clerk of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, reports.

October 31, 1934: Martin L. Davey, Democratic candidate for governor, pledges to large crowds in Warren and Youngstown that he will guarantee to keep Ohio’s schools open, pay teachers in cash and keep Ohio cities and counties operating with an adequate tax program.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. reports a $1.2 million loss for the third quarter, reflecting a recession in business after July 1. The company had reported a $1 million profit during the busy second quarter.

Economist Roger Babson predicts that by 1968 Chicago will surpass New York as the world’s largest city.