Years Ago

Today is Monday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2011. There are 75 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1711: Jupiter Hammon, the first black poet to have his work published in America, is born on Long Island, N.Y., into a lifetime of slavery. (The date of his death is unknown, although he apparently lived at least into his 80s.)

1777: British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrender to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.

1931: Mobster Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion. (Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone is released in 1939.)

1933: Albert Einstein arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

1973: Arab oil-producing nations announce they will begin cutting back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result is a total embargo that lasts until March 1974.

1991: Entertainer Tennessee Ernie Ford dies in Reston, Va., at age 72.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Angry congressmen, including U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-16th, pull the plug on a Reagan administration program, Expo Maquila ’86, that encourages U.S. companies to move to Mexico.

Acknowledging the controversy over whether the Department of Human Services should stay downtown after its lease in the Higbee Parkade expires, Mahoning County commissioners ask special interest groups involved to give their opinions and advice.

1971: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. announces a third-quarter net income of $5.1 million, equal to $1.47 per share, on sales and revenue of $144 million.

The city of Youngstown is seeking participation in the Federal Housing and Urban Development Department’s “Project Rehabilitation” housing program, which could mean as much as $40 million to update substandard housing in the city.

Meeting at Wick Park, the United Veterans Council gives unanimous approval for the 3.7-mill Youngstown school levy and a half-mill library levy.

1961: Harold E. Hutzen, a South High junior, will be the first member of Boy Scout Troop 36 at John Knox United Presbyterian Church to reach Eagle Scout rank.

George Poschner, Youngstown football star of the early 1940s and a World War II hero, is honored as “man of the year” by the Youngstown Saxon Club.

1936: The Mahoning County Bar Association endorses four of five candidates seeking re-election: Judge Erskine Maiden Jr. and Judge David G. Jenkins, common pleas; Judge Clifford M. Woodside, probate, and Judge William A. Carter, court of appeals.

Lawrence A. Hince, administrative assistant to FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, urges Youngstowners to meet the goal of 1,702 new members of the YMCA during a dinner meeting launching the campaign.

Two Youngstown bus drivers are robbed within a period of two hours, one of $8 and one of $10. One driver, J.A. Wood, put up a fight, but was beaten by the robber.