Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 31, the 305th day of 2012. There are 61 days left in the year. This is Halloween.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1517: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

1926: Magician Harry Houdini dies in Detroit from a ruptured appendix.

1941: The Navy destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland with the loss of some 100 lives, even though the United States had not yet entered World War II.

1959: A former U.S. Marine renounces his citizenship at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow so he could live in the Soviet Union. His name: Lee Harvey Oswald.

1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, hoping to spur peace negotiations.

1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: FBI agents raid 30 Youngstown area bars and social clubs, confiscating 54 poker machines that produced an estimated $1.3 million annually for organized crime.

Youngstown police say disclosure that a South Side prostitute who died in St. Elizabeth Hospital carried the AIDS virus has had little effect on business among streetwalkers.

Three of five members of the Canfield Planning Commission say they favor an ordinance that would require a citywide vote on whether any single precinct could allow the sale of liquor.

1972: The Vindicator’s second half straw poll shows Democrat George McGovern carrying Youngstown with 67 percent of the vote over President Richard Nixon.

General Fireproofing Co., Youngstown’s largest fabricator, makes a turnaround in earnings, and reports it will resume paying dividends.

Charles B. Olds, Youngstown Division manager of Ohio Edison Co., announces plans for a two-year, $2 million expansion of maintenance shops on South Avenue.

1962: Austintown police report one of the worst cases of Halloween vandalism in memory with the malicious destruction of 15 automobile windshields in the Meridian and Raccoon roads area.

The YSU-Akron football game scheduled for Rayen Stadium is cancelled after Akron demands substitution rules that vary from that of the NCAA. YSU is claiming a win by forfeit.

1937: Officials at the Mahoning County Board of Elections are urging voters to vote early to avoid crowds and to carefully mark all ballots so as to avoid delays in tabulation.

Halloween pranksters kept city and county police busy in Mahoning County. An 11-year-old Marshall Street lad, Leonard Kulow, was ringing doorbells when an irate householder met him at the door and struck him in the head with a wrench. He is being treated by his family doctor.

Robert Fleming of Youngstown is elected to the executive committee for three years at the Northeastern Ohio Teachers Convention in Cleveland.