Years Ago

Today is Sunday, Oct. 16, the 289th day of 2011. There are 76 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1901: Booker T. Washington dines at the White House as the guest of President Theodore Roosevelt, whose invitation to the black educator sparks controversy.

1911: The National Conference of Progressive Republicans, meeting in Chicago, nominates Wisconsin Sen. Robert M. La Follette for the presidency.

1978: The College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chooses Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to be the new pope; he takes the name John Paul II.

1991: George Hennard opens fire at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 people before taking his own life.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: A century-old Erie Lackawanna Railroad depot is moved on a flatbed trailer from South Beaver Street in Lisbon to a parking lot near the Lisbon Historical Society’s Old Stone House Museum on East Chestnut.

A candidate’s forum on Youngstown’s West Side erupts into a shouting match between state Sen. Harry Meshel, D-33rd, and his two challengers, Merle Madrid, a Republican, and Dr. Fredric D’Amato, an independent.

1971: A quick-drawing station attendant in Campbell, Robert Schall, thwarts a robbery when he ducks behind a counter, grabs a pistol and fires several shots at two would-be robbers.

Dennis Vencel, 19, of Overlook NE in Warren, is electrocuted by a live wire while attempting to remove his father’s wrecked car from an accident scene. The elder Vencel’s auto struck a utility pole near their home.

1961: Six C119 Flying Boxcars from the 757th Troop Carrier Squadron at Youngstown Municipal Airport search Western Pennsylvania for a jet bomber missing since Sky Shield, a Civil Defense drill. The Strategic Air Command B52 bomber from a North Carolina base went down somewhere between Pittsburgh and Sunbury, Pa.

Burglars crack two safes at the palatial home of Columbiana County Judge Joel H. Sharp, escaping with an undetermined amount of money and jewelry.

1936: A prosperous Wolf Creek Township, Pa., farmer, Paul Pinteau, 50, kills himself in a field near Grove City, Pa., using a stick of dynamite. He left a note in his automobile that read, “Good-bye, I am leaving this world. Forget about me. Car needs oil.”

Mrs. Cora M. Vogan, a Republican, is one of four candidates for Mahoning County commissioner, the first woman to seek countywide office.