YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Thursday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2015. There are 70 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1746: Princeton University is first chartered as the College of New Jersey.

1797: French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris.

1836: Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.

1883: The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York has its grand opening with a performance of Gounod’s “Faust.”

1928: Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover speaks of the “American system of rugged individualism” in a speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1934: Bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd is shot to death by federal agents and local police at a farm in Columbiana County near East Liverpool.

1953: The Franco-Lao Treaty of Amity and Association effectively makes Laos an independent member of the French Union.

1962: In a nationally broadcast address, President John F. Kennedy reveals the presence of Soviet-built missile bases under construction in Cuba and announces a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped to the Communist island nation.

1979: The U.S. government allows the deposed shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment – a decision that precipitates the Iran hostage crisis.

1981: The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization is decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.

1986: President Ronald Reagan signs into law sweeping tax-overhaul legislation.

1991: The European Community and the European Free Trade Association conclude a landmark accord to create a free-trade zone of 19 nations by 1993.

2010: WikiLeaks releases 391,831 purported Iraq war logs that suggest more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the conflict.

2014: In Canada, a gunman shoots to death a soldier standing guard at a war memorial, then storms Parliament in the heart of downtown Ottawa before he is shot and killed by the usually ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Law-enforcement officials and independent experts say the Mafia remains a potent force in the New York City area and in the suburbs of Chicago but has been battered by aggressive investigation and weakened by incompetent leadership in most of the rest of the country.

Mahoning Common Pleas Court judges delay approval of an early- release plan to ease county jail overcrowding.

Salvador Garcia, a 27-year-old sergeant in the Mexican army, and Elaine VonBlunk, a 26-year-old accountant from New York, are the first man and woman to cross the finish line in the 14th annual International Peace Race through Mill Creek Park. Each wins $5,000.

1975: Montgomery Ward opens its new full-line retail store at 476 Boardman-Canfield Road with formal ribbon-cutting ceremonies. The 140,000-square-foot store will be open seven days a week.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declares a one- year moratorium on the issuance of new lakeshore use permits and licenses and leases for boat docks, walkways and lighting at Berlin Reservoir.

Bert Tamarkin, secretary-treasurer of the Tamarkin Co., is elected president of the Jewish Federation of Youngstown.

1965: Mahoning County commissioners take the first step toward $850,000 waterline and tank projects for Boardman Township that would relieve water shortages that have plagued 8,000 families.

Youngstown schools Superintendent J.H. Wanamaker appoints Robert Pegues Jr. to direct “Project Second Chance,” which is sponsored by the Economic Opportunity Act and the Youngstown Board of Education.

Trumbull County Commissioner Robert E. Hagan says he’s encouraged by the reaction of a Federal Aviation Agency delegation to his proposal for establishing a Trumbull County Airport at the deactivated Lordstown Military Reservation.

1940: Seven sons of Mr. and Mrs. John DeLullo of Hillsville, Pa., register for the draft under the military conscription law.

A farewell parade takes place at Erie Station for the first contingent of Trumbull County men reporting for military training.

The city of Youngstown takes bids on coal needed for 1940. It will pay at least $670 more for its coal because of the Guffey Act and its effect on mining costs.