YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 4, the 308th day of 2014. There are 57 days left in the year. This is Election Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1862: Inventor Richard J. Gatling receives a U.S. patent for his rapid-fire Gatling gun.

1922: The entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb is discovered in Egypt.

1924: President Calvin Coolidge, who had succeeded the late President Warren G. Harding, is elected to a full term of office; Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming is elected the nation’s first female governor to serve out the remaining term of her late husband, William B. Ross.

1939: The United States modifies its neutrality stance in World War II, allowing “cash and carry” purchases of arms by belligerents, a policy favoring Britain and France.

1942: During World War II, Axis forces retreat from El Alamein in North Africa in a major victory for British forces commanded by Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery.

1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. He defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

The highly secretive National Security Agency comes into existence.

1964: Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted by a three-judge panel in New York of obscenity charges stemming from his performances at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. (The club’s owner, Howard Solomon, was also found guilty, but had his conviction overturned; Bruce died before his appeal was decided, but he received a pardon in 2003 from New York Gov. George Pataki.)

1979: The Iran hostage crisis begins as militants storm the United States Embassy in Tehran, seizing its occupants; for some, it is the start of 444 days of captivity.

1980: Republican Ronald Reagan wins the White House as he defeats President Jimmy Carter by a strong margin.

1991: Ronald Reagan opens his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.; in attendance are President George H.W. Bush and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford and Richard Nixon — the first-ever gathering of five past and present U.S. chief executives.

1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a right-wing Israeli minutes after attending a festive peace rally.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Gary Lee, the former Youngstown man who was one of the 52 hostages held for 444 days in Iran, says he’ll spend the 10th anniversary of the embassy takeover as a normal day. He understands the nation’s trauma, but doesn’t know why anyone would want to remember it.

A Vindicator poll of 400 registered voters in Mahoning County shows that 55 percent believe abortion should be outlawed, 76 percent think government should do more to combat drugs, and 72 percent believe government should provide health insurance, but only 53 percent are willing to pay more taxes for health insurance.

Hills Department stores will begin accepting Visa and Mastercard credit cards in all of its 208 stores by Thanksgiving, ending a policy against credit cards that dates to the first Hills store being opened in Youngstown 32 years earlier.

1974: Two Warren youths, Kenneth Moore, 13, and Terry McElroy, 15, are treated for gunshot wounds at Trumbull Memorial Hospital after being shot at from a moving car off Main Street Southwest.

Fourteen local honorees are inducted into the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame during a banquet at which Pete Rose, fiery captain of the Cincinnati Reds, is the main speaker.

Youngstown State takes a 13-3 lead by halftime and protects it the rest of the game to defeat Eastern Illinois and give Coach Rey Dempsey the Penguins’ sixth win in seven games.

1964: The passage of the Youngstown children’s levy of 1 mill assures the construction of a new school for the area’s retarded children.

President Lyndon Johnson wins a smashing election victory over Barry Goldwater, receiving the largest number of votes and the greatest margin over an opponent in modern history.

Billy Casper wins the Almaden Open Golf Tournament and gets the first place prize of $3,300.

1939: The snow cruiser built for Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s South Pole expedition arrives in Ashtabula en route to Boston, from which it will be shipped to the Antarctic.

Arthur H. Williams, Youngstown mayoral candidate, speaking before 100 members of the Negro Republican Organization in Central Auditorium, warns his supporters that in the last days of the campaign there will be mud-slinging against him and the Republican Party.

The annual Hubbard Kiwanis Club minstrel show for the benefit of underprivileged children will be presented Nov. 9, 10 and 11 in the high school auditorium. L.A. Sprague will be interlocutor.