Years Ago

Today is Monday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2013. There are 71 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1797: The U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” is christened in Boston’s harbor.

1805: A British fleet commanded by Adm. Horatio Nelson defeats a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, is killed.

1879: Thomas Edison perfects a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.

1917: Members of the 1st Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, become the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I.

1944: During World War II, U.S. troops capture the German city of Aachen.

1959: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public in New York.

1960: Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clash in their fourth and final presidential debate in New York.

1962: The Seattle World’s Fair closes after six months and nearly 10 million visitors. (President John F. Kennedy, scheduled to attend the closing ceremony, cancels because of what is described as a “head cold”; the actual reason turned out to be the Cuban Missile Crisis.)

1967: The Israeli destroyer INS Eilat is sunk by Egyptian missile boats near Port Said; 47 Israeli crew members are lost.

1971: President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Both nominees were confirmed.)

1986: Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon abduct American Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).

1991: American hostage Jesse Turner is freed by his kidnappers in Lebanon after nearly five years in captivity.

2003: Invoking a hastily-passed law, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush orders a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die battle.

The Senate votes to ban the practice that critics call partial-birth abortion.

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approves a resolution demanding that Israel tear down a barrier jutting into the West Bank.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Trumbull County commissioners are given 90 days to respond to 10 state fire marshal citations for electrical, structural and safety violations at the Trumbull County Courthouse.

Richard D. Major, president and CEO of GF Corp., speaks at Youngstown State University’s Williamson Symposium and says American companies can no long afford indifferent quality, inefficient executive structures and antagonistic labor-management relations.

Beaver Township officials say township firefighters have burned down two decrepit houses and will destroy seven other township eyesores in the near future.

1973: The Warren law department is investigating ways to cope with the rapid deterioration of the Oaklawn Mausoleum and may seek court permission to board it up or even raze it. It holds about 200 bodies.

Atty. William Kunstler, counsel for the “Chicago 7,” will be the first of three Skeggs Lecturers presented by Youngstown State University’s 1973-74 Artist Lecture Series.

The City Series battle at Rayen Stadium between undefeated Chaney and North is terminated with over 4 minutes remaining when a wild brawl breaks out on the field following a Chaney touchdown that gave the Cowboys a 20-0 lead.

1963: Barbara Glass, a senior from Beloit, is crowed homecoming queen of Mount Union College.

Police responding to a burglary alarm at Hamburg Brothers Co., 904 Tod Ave., capture four teenage boys and recover loot piled on the company roof.

With no indication of rain in the forecast, Trumbull County firemen prohibit all hunting and open fires in the county.

1938: John D.M. Hamilton, Republican national chairman, condemns Youngstown Congressman Michael J. Kirwan as President Roosevelt’s “No. 1 yes man” during a speech to 500 people at Youngstown’s Central Auditorium.

Peter J. Corll, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic central committee and local chairman of Charles W. Sawyer’s Democratic gubernatorial campaign, is fired by the Ohio Tax Commission.

Steel operations in the Youngstown district are the highest in a year, reaching 60 percent of capacity.