Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Oct. 24, the 297th day of 2013. There are 68 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1537: Jane Seymour, the third wife of England’s King Henry VIII, dies 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward, later King Edward VI.

1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War and effectively destroys the Holy Roman Empire.

1861: The first transcontinental telegraph message is sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.

1939: Nylon stockings are first sold publicly in Wilmington, Del.

1940: The 40-hour work week goes into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

1945: The United Nations officially comes into existence as its charter takes effect.

1952: Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declares in Detroit, “I shall go to Korea” as he promises to end the conflict. (He makes the visit over a month later.)

1962: A naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy goes into effect during the missile crisis; the blockade is aimed at interdicting the delivery of offensive weapons to the island.

1972: Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, dies in Stamford, Conn., at age 53.

1987: Thirty years after it was expelled, the Teamsters union is welcomed back into the AFL-CIO. (However, the Teamsters disafilliate themselves from the AFL-CIO in 2005.)

1989: Former television evangelist Jim Bakker is sentenced by a judge in Charlotte, N.C., to 45 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. (The sentence is later reduced to eight years; it is further reduced to four for good behavior.)

1991: “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry dies in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 70.

1992: The Toronto Blue Jays become the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series by defeating the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, in Game 6.

2002: Authorities arrest Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo near Myersville, Md., in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks.

2003: Three Concordes swoop into London’s Heathrow Airport, joining in a spectacular finale to the era of luxury supersonic jet travel.

International donors pledge more than $33 billion for Iraq’s reconstruction in the next four years — nearly two-thirds of it from the United States.

Tiger Woods matches the 55-year-old standard set by Byron Nelson by making the cut in his 113th consecutive PGA Tour event.

2008: Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother are found slain in their Chicago home; the body of her 7-year-old nephew is found three days later. (Hudson’s estranged brother-in-law has been arrested in the killings.)

A Russian Soyuz capsule touches down in Kazakhstan after delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space, a Russian and an American, to the international space station.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: A new poll shows that Republican George Voinovich has reduced the vast lead once held by Democratic U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum.

Harry Meshel, Ohio Senate majority leader and chairman of the Michael S. Dukakis campaign in Ohio, says a high turnout would be the key to a Dukakis victory in the state.

Warren city residents will get to vote in November on whether the state can build the $35 million Trumbull Correctional Institution in the city.

1973: P&H Realty will build a 17,600 sq. ft., one-story office building complex costing about $500,000 for the IRS and Social Security Administration at the corner of E. Boardman and Walnut streets downtown.

With only two days to go in its campaign, the Youngstown Area United Appeal is $700,000 short of its $1.9 million goal.

The Ohio Supreme Court rules that a post office box number cannot be used to fill the residency requirement of the state’s voter registration law.

1963: Youngstown police and firemen bring reinforcements in a stepped-up campaign to wrest pay increases from city council, with their wives and children carrying placards urging quick approval of raises.

Cleveland police believe numbers writer Donald King was the source of a tip about his operations after there was unusually high play on the winning number. Because police confiscated all the betting slips, the numbers operator will save about $30,000 in payouts.

A powerful Pittsburgh financial group that once held a heavy interest in General Fireproofing Co. and unsuccessfully sought control is back, placing three members on the board of directors in a surprise move.

1938: More than 50 water colors by professional and amateur Mahoning Valley artists are displayed in the exhibit of combined art clubs at the Butler Art Institute. Among the notable entries are a weather-beaten farmhouse by Paul Hendricks of Canfield and the “Walnut St. Grade Crossing” by Francis Stansbury of Youngstown.

The Youngstown YMCA opens its 1938 membership drive during a banquet attended by 250 men.

Ohio Finance Director M. Ray Allison and Auditor Joseph T. Ferguson disagree on whether Ohio has the money to pay the state’s $1,479,000 share of Social Security pensions. The federal share is $1,575,000.