YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 18, the 292nd day of 2016. There are 74 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1767: The Mason-Dixon line, the boundary between colonial Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, is set as astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete their survey.

1954: Texas Instruments unveils the Regency TR-1, the first commercially produced transistor radio.

1969: The federal government bans artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they cause cancer in lab rats.

1997: A monument honoring American servicewomen, past and present, is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.

2006: The Dow Jones industrial average passes 12,000 for the first time before pulling back to close at 11,992.68.

2011: Fifty wild animals are released by the owner of a Zanesville, Ohio, farm, Terry Thompson, who then committed suicide; authorities kill 48 of the creatures.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: LAS Recycling Inc., a $3 million facility on 20 acres near the Salt Springs Industrial Park, employs about 30 people separating recyclables for reuse.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s Pentagon correspondent and one of the biggest celebrity reporters in the Persian Gulf War, speaks to a large crowd at Youngstown State University’s Schermer Scholar-in-Residence program.

A 24-year-old inmate in Youngstown’s new work-release program is caught trying to smuggle three rocks of crack cocaine into the city jail.

1976: Fire caused by a heat build-up in a drying oven at the Lordstown General Motors Vega plant causes only minor damage and a brief disruption to production, says John Grix, GM information officer.

Youngstown State University’s fall enrollment is 16,100, an increase of 15 percent over two years, making it Ohio’s fastest-growing state-supported university.

Youngstown police say they are looking for a sadistic murderer who killed Margaret Williams, 20, of Ridge Avenue. Her brutalized body was found near Bailey Park in McGuffey Heights.

1966: Seven of Mahoning County’s 12 local school districts have passed resolutions to join in a $3.3 million county vocational school. The program for juniors and seniors encompasses 32 trades.

The North Columbiana Red Cross Chapter will send more than 500 Christmas ditty bags to American servicemen in Vietnam. The bags contain cards, nail clippers, soap, pens and paperback books.

Washington School parents complain to the Youngstown Board of Education that parochial school children are being picked up and delivered to Holy Name School while their children have to walk 1.4 miles to the public school. Bus transportation is provided only when the student lives 1.5 miles from the school.

1941: William Hodory of Youngstown is one of 12 Ohioans in the crew of the U.S. destroyer Kearney, which was torpedoed by a German sub of Iceland. Hodory is a graduate of Chaney High and joined the Navy in 1936. There are no reports on casualties.

Two children die on the same morning in South Side Hospital of infantile paralysis, Martha Lipply, 10, of New Springfield, and James Rossi, 6, of Niles.

Youngstown artists are participating in an exhibit of “first and last” works, one being their first attempt and the other a most recent painting. Visitors at the Butler Art Institute will decide whether or not the artist has made progress.

An increase from $6,000 to $7,000 in the maximum cost of new homes for which government priorities on materials will be granted is asked by Youngstown builders. They also want permits for construction of commercial and public buildings.