Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Oct. 20, the 293rd day of 2011. There are 72 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date:

1803: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1936: Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, dies in Forest Hills, N.Y., at age 70.

1944: During World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur steps ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, 21/2 years after saying, “I shall return.”

1947: The House Un-American Activities Committee opens hearings into alleged Communist influence and infiltration in the U.S. motion picture industry.

1981: A bungled armored truck robbery carries out by members of radical groups in Nanuet, N.Y., left a guard and two police officers dead.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Public officials from Mahoning and Trumbull counties and the state are forming a task force to make recommendations for operations at the Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Jeanne Dykins, community-public relations director for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, is honored as Ohio’s Librarian of the Year.

1971: Wean United Inc. books a major order from Solmer Steel Co. of France involving four major processing lines worth many millions of dollars.

1961: The Youngstown Post Office building will get its first cleaning since it was built in 1932. The cost is $50,000.

Men of the Youngstown Advertising Club agree to plan an advertising and promotion campaign to offset the community’s national reputation as a mob town.

1936: Ferdinand Sigle, 55-year-old drug store clerk, dies in South Side Hospital of injuries after being shot by one of two youths at Frank’s Pharmacy on Glenwood Ave.

Youngstown police announce a vigorous campaign against “mashers” after an 18-year-old girl jumps from a moving car. The young man who offered her a ride home drove past her Lans-downe Blvd. address.

A Neighbor’s illegal bonfire to burn leaves costs Mary Lesicko, 8, her life after her clothes catch fire and she runs a half block to her Berkley Avenue home.