Today in history
Today is Wednesday, Oct. 17, the 291st day of 2012. There are 75 days left in the year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On this date in:
1912: Pope John Paul I is born Albino Luciani at Forno di Canale, Italy.
1931: Mobster Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion. (Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone is released in 1939.)
1941: The U.S. destroyer Kearny is damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Iceland; 11 people die.
1973: Arab oil-producing nations announce they would begin cutting back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result is a total embargo that lasts until March 1974.
VINDICATOR FILES
1987: Wall Street closes its worst week since World War II with a furious selloff that sent stock prices plummeting by $145 billion.
Poland Township trustees ask Ohio Gov. Richard F. Celeste to send two National Guard tanker trucks to the township to provide water for families whose wells are contaminated.
1972: George Brownlee, captain of the Boardman High School basketball team that was the state runner up two years earlier, dies of a brain tumor in South Side Hospital, where he was a patient for a week after returning from the University of Cincinnati after complaining of illness. He had also been captain of Boardman’s football and track teams.
Dr. James R. Donaldson, 52, a missionary from the Presbytery of Mahoning, is reported to have died in Miraj, India, where he was deputy superintendent of the Miraj Medical Center.
1962: George Dugan, 20, dies after being crushed against his stalled car by another car in Route 224 in front of the Boardman Plaza. The driver of the second car is charged with drunken driving and may face vehicular manslaughter charges.
Joseph Hume, president of Hume’s Furniture, announces that the store at 233 W. Federal St. will be closed before the end of the year.
1937: The Rev. D.T. Thomas, 60, an ordained minister who never held a pastorate, kills his wife, Mary, 44, a Crawford County school teacher, and handyman Frank Hodge, 75, with three blasts of a shotgun at the Thomas farmhouse near Greenville, Pa.
Youngstown area coal dealers say mines are running from a few days to a month behind in delivering orders after an early arrival by Old Man Winter cleans out reserve stocks and brings an increase in price of 25 to 30 cents per ton.