YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Monday, Oct. 12, the 285th day of 2015. There are 80 days left in the year. This is the Columbus Day holiday in the U.S., as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1492: (According to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus arrives with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.

1870: General Robert E. Lee dies in Lexington, Va., at age 63.

1915: Former President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking to the Knights of Columbus in New York, criticizes native-born Americans (as opposed to naturalized citizens) who identified themselves by dual nationalities, saying that “a hyphenated American is not an American at all.”

English nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium during World War I. (The night before the sentence was carried out, Cavell met with chaplain H. Stirling Gahan, who later quoted her as saying: “I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”)

1933: Bank robber John Dillinger escapes from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.

1935: Opera star Luciano Pavarotti is born in Modena, Italy.

1942: During World War II, American naval forces defeat the Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance.

Attorney General Francis Biddle announces during a Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York that Italian nationals in the United States no longer would be considered enemy aliens.

1973: President Richard Nixon nominates House minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.

1984: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escapes an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.

2000: Seventeen sailors re killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.

2002: Bombs blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants destroy a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

2005: China launches its second manned space flight, during which two astronauts orbit Earth for five days.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announces he will not participate in Germany’s new coalition government, ending seven years in power.

2010: The Obama administration announces it is lifting the six-month moratorium on deep- water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico imposed after the BP oil spill.

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meet for the first time in New York to discuss GM’s initial public offering as the automaker waited for approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell the shares.

At least 44 people are killed when a train hits a bus at a crossing in eastern Ukraine.

2014: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm that a health care worker at the Texas hospital where Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan was treated before his death had tested positive for the illness in the first known case of Ebola being contracted or transmitted in the U.S. (The worker, later identified as nurse Nina Pham, was treated and declared free of Ebola.)

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 5-4 to tie the NL Championship Series at one game apiece.

Mississippi State is the new No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll, replacing Florida State and making the fastest rise to the top spot in the history of the poll. (The Bulldogs were the first team in the poll’s 78-year history to go from unranked to No. 1 in five weeks.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Bishop James W. Malone of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese joins Jewish leaders in seeking an apology from U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. who made reference to Vic Rubenstein’s being Jewish when Rubenstein asked the congressman a question about Nazi war criminals during the Phil Donahue TV show.

Liberty Township officials say four residents are hampering progress and costing taxpayer money by their constant complaints at trustee meetings.

After spending six months working on a proposed Police Community Relations Board that would hear complaints of police misconduct, Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro says he is not convinced such a board is needed.

1975: The first-half Vindicator poll predicts a close race for Youngstown mayor between Republican incumbent Jack C. Hunter and his Democratic challenger, George Vukovich.

The Foreman Road covered bridge in Eagleville, Ashtabula County, has been dismantled and rebuilt by Gary Hewitt as the Covered Bridge Pizza Parlor in North Kingsville near the junction of state Route 193 and U.S. Route 20.

The Butler Institute of American Art is preparing a retrospective of 45 years of art created by Clyde Singer, an assistant to Joe Butler, museum director, has written more than 2,000 columns as The Vindicator’s art critic and has painted an equal number of pictures.

1965: First Baptist Temple on West Boardman Street plans extensive remodeling. Building a new chancel for the sanctuary has begun.

Speaking at the downtown Columbus Day observance, Dr. David M. Behen, history professor at Youngstown University, says Americans must emulate Christopher Columbus in looking beyond the problems they face to see the opportunities that await.

Paul Brown, former coach and general manager of the Cleveland Browns, is trying to organize a group to bid for the 16th National Football League franchise. Three cities identified as possibilities are New Orleans, Houston and Seattle.

1940: Poland’s chief threat when it meets Springfield Township in their six-man football encounter at Poland will be John Hill, 190-pound end and fullback, who has scored 54 of Poland’s 119 points chalked up in the first three games. Teammates are Merle Madrid, Bob Nicholas, Frank Walker and Frank Yelich.

Youngstown East High breaks Campbell Memorial’s 11-game winning streak, with a sensational 13-0 upset before a crowd of 8,000 at Campbell stadium.

Theatergoers at the opening of “Outward Bound” at the Playhouse are able to relax on the new bench cushions loaned to the Playhouse by St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Clarence W. Summer, librarian of the Reuben McMillan Free Library, is the new president of the Ohio Library Association. He was elected at the 45th annual convention at Hotel Ohio.