YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, Oct. 16, the 289th day of 2014. There are 76 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1859: Radical abolitionist John Brown leads a group of 21 men in a raid on Harpers Ferry in western Virginia. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped. Brown and six followers were captured; all were executed.)

1793: During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, is beheaded.

1934: Chinese Communists, under siege by the Nationalists, begin their “long march” lasting a year from southeastern to northwestern China.

1939: The comedy “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, opens on Broadway.

1943: Chicago Mayor Edward J. Kelly officially opens the city’s new subway system during a ceremony at the State and Madison street station.

1962: President John F. Kennedy is informed that reconnaissance photographs have revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.

1964: China sets off its first atomic bomb, code-named “596,” on the Lop Nur Test Ground.

1969: The New York Mets cap their miracle season by winning the World Series, defeating the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3, in Game 5 played at Shea Stadium.

1978: The College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chooses Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to be the new pope; he takes the name John Paul II.

1984: Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu is named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of non-violent struggle for racial equality in South Africa.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Youngstown real estate tax delinquencies increase by $2 million in a year, and Auditor George Tablack says a 14.5-mill city school levy increased taxes by 27 percent and “acted as a stimulus to nonpayment.”

Claudia Sansone, president of the International Peace Race board of directors, says eliminating the traditional 25K race was necessary in order to refine the 10K race and attract world-caliber competition to Youngstown.

Two Ohio Edison cables that feed WFMJ-TV fail a half hour after the beginning of the Browns-Steelers game, interrupting the broadcast until 7:15 p.m., minutes before the game ended (with a 17-7 Steelers win).

1974: Girard City Council tables an ordinance creating the position of full-time mayor.

William Cossler Jr., member of the state board of education from Youngstown, says there is little chance of the Western Reserve Transit Authority getting more than the $43 per pupil it is getting to provide transportation for Youngstown City School District students.

The Youngstown district is being revitalized as one of the country’s top steelmaking centers, with Lykes-Youngstown Corp. spending more than $50 million for its new Campbell oxygen steelmaking facility, Joseph T. Lykes Jr., Lykes-Youngstown CEO, says during a meeting of 600 Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. supervisors at the Maronite Center.

1964: At its final campaign meeting, the United Appeal reports total contributions of $1.5 million, a record high, but about 8 percent short of its goal.

The St. Louis Cardinals win their first World Series championship in 18 years, beating the New York Yankees, 7-5, in the seventh game.

1939: Major Gen. Julian Schley, chief of army engineers, says at the 21st annual convention of the Mississippi Valley Association meeting in St. Louis that waterway transportation is vital in times of national emergency, such as war.

An automatic parachute opener invented by Dr. Eugene Laurisin of Youngstown, will be given its final test at the municipal airport in Conneaut.

Dr. Barclay Acheson, associate editor of the Reader’s Digest, will address the Youngstown Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Mahoning Valley Foreman’s Club on “Freedom ... the Mental Climate for Progress.”