Years Ago

Today is Monday, Oct. 28, the 301st day of 2013. There are 64 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1636: The General Court of Massachusetts passes a legislative act establishing Harvard College.

1776: The Battle of White Plains is fought during the Revolutionary War, resulting in a limited British victory.

1886: The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.

1936: President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

1940: Italy invades Greece during World War II.

1958: The Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, is elected pope; he takes the name John XXIII.

1962: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informs the United States that he has ordered the dismantling of missile bases in Cuba.

1980: President Jimmy Carter and Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan face off in a nationally broadcast, 90-minute debate in Cleveland.

1991: What becomes known as “The Perfect Storm” begins forming hundreds of miles east of Nova Scotia; lost at sea during the storm are the six crew members of the Andrea Gail, a sword-fishing boat from Gloucester, Mass.

2001: The families of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack gather in New York for a memorial service filled with prayer and song.

2002: American diplomat Laurence Foley is assassinated in front of his house in Amman, Jordan, in the first such attack on a U.S. diplomat in decades.

2008: Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is sentenced to four months in jail for his part in a sex-and-text scandal. (Kilpatrick ends up serving 99 days.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: Mahoning County Prosecutor Gary Van Brocklin, a Republican, has spent more than $100,000 in his re-election bid while his Democratic challenger, James Philomena, has spent about $75,000, campaign reports show.

The Mahoning Valley Coalition to Ban Corporal Punishment in Public Schools is joining a movement to have paddling banned in Ohio schools.

Eric Wolford, an offensive guard and defensive end for Ursuline High, has become a spark plug for the Irish, coming up with 11 tackles in Ursuline’s 36-0 romp over Hubbard.

1973: The Youngstown district is enjoying one of the longest and highest levels of business activity since World War II and the low unemployment rate has resulted in a shortage of skilled workers.

Two members of Boy Scouts Troop 25 at St. Michael Church in Canfield receive their Eagle awards: Charles E. Felger, 16, and Greg O’Neal, 14.

Ina B. Cooper, director of the Trumbull County Board of Elections, estimates that 70,000 of the county’s 105,000 registered voters will go to the polls on Election Day.

1963: Pope Paul VI receives the Most Rev. Emmet M. Walsh, bishop of Youngstown, in a private audience.

Jerry Knight, Vindicator City Hall reporter, is named executive secretary of the Youngstown Metropolitan Area Development Citizens’ Committee.

A huge field fire rages on Struthers-Poland Road east of Struthers, threatening some nearby homes

1938: One of three pretty Youngstown College coeds will be crowned homecoming queen. The candidates are Margaret Wylie, Marie Barrett and Rachel Brown.

Steel production in the Youngstown district rises to 63 percent with 55 of the area’s 83 open hearths in operation.

Slovaks and Czechs in Salem will hold a cultural program at the Roumanian Hall on S. Ellsworth Avenue to mark the 20th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Republic.