YEARS AGO

October 21, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2015. There are 71 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1892: Schoolchildren across the U.S. observe Columbus Day (according to the Gregorian calendar) by reciting, for the first time, the original version of “The Pledge of Allegiance,” written by Francis Bellamy for The Youth’s Companion. The pledge, which has been revised several times, originally went: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

1879: Thomas Edison perfects a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.

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.

1971:President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Both nominees were confirmed.)

2005: The Kansas Supreme Court unanimously strikes down a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts, saying “moral disapproval” of such conduct is not enough to justify the different treatment.

2014: In South Africa, Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to five years in prison for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp; legal analysts said under the law, the man known as the “Blade Runner” because of his carbon-fiber running blades, would have to serve 10 months, or one-sixth of his sentence, in prison before he was eligible for house arrest.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Jeffrey Reckard of Pittsburgh says he would not have parachuted from the 270-foot-high Emlenton Bridge on Interstate 80 if he had known it was going to cause such a furor and result in his arrest.

The Cincinnati Reds clinch the World Series in a four-game sweep over the Oakland Athletics.

1975: The Greater Youngstown AFL-CIO Council endorses both Jack C. Hunter, the Republican incumbent, and George Vukovich, the Democratic challenger, in the race for Youngstown mayor.

The Supreme Court of the United States will review a lower court decision that allowed Joseph V. Orleans, 20, of Warren to file a $1.1 million lawsuit against the federal government for injuries suffered in an automobile accident while on an outing sponsored by the Westlawn Neighborhood Opportunity Center when he was 15.

A Sharon, Pa., antique dealer turns over to Youngstown police six invaluable stained-glass windows that had been stolen from St. Patrick Church on Oak Hill Avenue. Five other windows had been recovered earlier from a Canfield dealer.

1965: The Ohio Valley Improvement Association honors U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown and Sen. Allen J. Ellender, D-La., for their support of the development of water resources.

Niles Police Chief John Ross and Solicitor James McQueen tell City Council that the police department should be beefed up with the addition of two patrolmen and two detectives.

Local delegates prepare to travel to Detroit to the National Girl Scout Convention. Attending are Mrs. F.A. Schneider Jr., Mrs. John Gasser, Mrs. Ernest Polley, Mrs. John Kohlerg, Mrs. James McGee, Mrs. R. Lee Weyer, Mrs. Kurt Forsyte, Mrs. Ernest DeMatteo and Mrs. George Korver.

1940: Youngstown will host the 1941 convention of the Ohio Industrial Union Council, the state central body of CIO unions.

The Chamber of Commerce is told that Youngstown is in the running as the site of an $8.4 million aircraft engine research lab that will be built by the federal government.

Auxiliary Bishop James McFadden of Cleveland officiates at the cornerstone laying for St. Rose Church in Girard.