Years ago

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 12, the 285th day of 2011. There are 80 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1492: (According to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus arrives with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.

1810: The German festival Oktoberfest is first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

1870: Gen. Robert E. Lee dies in Lexington, Va., at age 63.

1933: Bank robber John Dillinger escapes from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, which kills the sheriff, Jess Sarber.

1942: During World War II, American naval forces defeat the Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance.

1971: The rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” opens on Broadway.

1986: The superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ends in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the U.S.

2000: Seventeen sailors are killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.

2002: A bomb blamed on Islamic militants destroys a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: George McKelvey, a candidate for Mahoning County auditor, says the auditor’s $57,000 salary is out of line, and if elected he’ll do the job for $15,000, while keeping his position as an assistant principal at Adams Junior High School.

A Youngstown charter review commission completes its work and submits a number of amendments for the November ballot, including provisions that would change the terms and salaries of the mayor and city council members.

The Greater Union Township Development Association announces a proposal for construction of a $20 million domed greyhound racetrack and 200-room motel in the Pennsylvania township.

1971: “The desire to foster a greater appreciation in the community of the immense contribution Latin culture has made in Western civilization led to the Latin Culture Foundation” in Youngstown, says Judge Forrest J. Cavalier at the 25th anniversary celebration at the Foundation center off Glenwood Avenue.

An early morning fire claims the lives of Frank Peters, 77, and his daughter, May, 50, in their mobile home on Warner Road in Fowler Township, two miles north of King-Graves Road.

A crowd of 1,500 turns out during a light drizzle for Youngstown’s Columbus Day parade.

1961: Gov. Michael V. DiSalle names Youngstown Municipal Judge Forrest J. Cavalier to the common pleas seat vacated by Frank J. Battisti, who was named to the federal bench.

Youngstown Mayor Frank R. Franko calls on department heads to crack down on the off-hours use of city cars, but says the order will not extend to the mayor’s office.

The Trumbull County prosecutor’s office issues subpoenas to six area banks seeking records of six men indicted in a probe of kickbacks from contractors on Warren’s sewage system.

1936: The Pittsburgh Coal Co.’s private railroad from Smith’s Ferry, Pa., to Negley, Ohio, which had been challenged by the Pennsylvania and P&LE railroads, receives a tacit sanction to exist after the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to consider an injunction sought by the larger railroads.

The Youngstown Elks Club, organized by 50 men 50 years ago, prepares to celebrate its anniversary with festivities that will include 50 “big wig” Elks from around the nation, including Florida Gov. David Sholtz, who is Grand Exalted Ruler of the Grand Lodge.

Clingan Jackson, Vindicator politics writer, reports that as women play a more important part in election campaigns in Mahoning County, the cuspidors that have dotted party headquarters in bygone days are drastically reduced in number and are being inconspicuously located.