YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2014. 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.

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.

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

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Some members of the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches decide to join with the Interracial Clergy Dialogue in opposing the repeal of a 14.5-mill levy for the Youngstown City School District.

Pa. Gov. Robert Casey pushes a plunger setting off fireworks at the groundbreaking for a $320.9 million bridge in Union Township that will allow completion of Route 60 between New Castle and the Pittsburgh International Airport.

1974: Most of the 975 United Steel Workers members at Commercial Shearing Inc. remain off the job despite a court order and an order from USW President I.W. Able telling them to return to their jobs. The walkout began after a shop steward was fired.

Robbers armed with a pistol and a knife surprise a West Side man, Peter Egley, 67, as he left a Lawson Dairy store on Mahoning Avenue and force him to drive to his Richview Avenue home, where they terrorized his family and ransacked the house.

Cleveland Browns Coach Nick Skorich’s job is in jeopardy after the Browns lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-16 in Pittsburgh.

1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson cancels campaign trips to Ohio, Illinois and Missouri so that he can attend services for former President Herbert Hoover in New York.

1939: Esther Hamilton, Vindicator columnist and reporter, wins three awards in the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association annual contest.

Paul Avery, on his way to referee the Niles- Struthers football game in Struthers, is kidnapped by three young men who forced their way into his car when it was stopped at a red light at Midlothian and Southern boulevards. They dropped him off on New Springfield Road and took his car, but Poland Marshal Clark Wagner got him to the game in time to referee a 6-6 tie.