Years Ago

Today is Monday, Oct. 22, the 296th day of 2012. There are 70 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1797: French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris.

1928: Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover speaks of the “American system of rugged individualism” in a speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1934: Bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd is shot to death by federal agents at a farm in East Liverpool, Ohio.

1962: President John F. Kennedy reveals that Soviet-built missile bases are under construction in Cuba and announces a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped to the Communist island nation.

1979: The U.S. government allows the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitates the Iran hostage crisis.

1981: The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization is decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.

1986: President Ronald Reagan signs into law sweeping tax-overhaul legislation.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Third Ward Councilman George McKelvey says he smells a rat in a rodent control program that has the city giving free trash cans to some 7th Ward resident just two weeks before an election.

Noting that only one stinger missile in the hands of a terrorist could bring down a commercial airliner, U. S. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, says the Army’s storage and inventory procedures for the missiles in Europe is too lax.

1972: Youngstown Mayor Jack C. Hunter meets President Richard Nixon in Philadelphia, where Nixon says he expects to visit the Mahoning Valley before the November election.

1962: Mayor Harry Savasten meets with police officials, religious and civic leaders to discuss the need to suppress crime in the city and throughout the Mahoning Valley.

Youngstown district steel producing companies have invested between $700 million and $800 million in the last dozen years in an effort to remain modern, competitive and profitable, writes finance editor George R. Reiss.

1937:Lower steel operations have brought decreased employment and lower individual earnings, but total payrolls for September were still 25 to 30 percent above that of the same month in 1936.