YEARS AGO

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 26, the 300th day of 2016. There are 66 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1825: The Erie Canal opens in upstate New York, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River.

1861: The legendary Pony Express officially ceases operations, giving way to the transcontinental telegraph.

1944: The World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf ends in a major Allied victory over Japanese forces, whose naval capabilities are badly crippled.

1949: President Harry S. Truman signs a measure raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour.

1965: The Beatles receive honorary medals from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

1984: “Baby Fae,” a newborn with a severe heart defect, is given the heart of a baboon in an experimental transplant in Loma Linda, Calif. (Baby Fae lived 21 days with the animal heart.)

2001: President George W. Bush signs the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.

2006: President George W. Bush signs a measure authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

2015:. The World Health Organization, throwing its global weight behind years of experts’ warnings, declares that processed meats raise the risk of colon and stomach cancer and that red meat was probably harmful, too.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Five of six men who escaped from the Mahoning County jail Oct. 15 have been recaptured. The only one remaining at large is Willie J. “Flip” Williams, who is accused of four execution-style murders over Labor Day weekend.

Arthur G. Young, retired chief executive officer of the Mahoning National Bank, is honored as the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp.’s “Man of the Year.”

Citing a lessening demand for spark plugs, the Champion Spark Plug Co. in Toledo closes after 79 years, idling 300 workers.

1976: Bishop James Thomas, 57, of Canton, the new spiritual and administrative leader of the 270,000 member Ohio East Area of the United Methodist Church, is greeted at the Youngstown Club by about 30 religious and civic leaders, including Mayor Jack C. Hunter and Roman Catholic Bishop James W. Malone.

The Boardman Board of Education votes to apply for $1 million in funding under the Community Development Act for construction of a new auditorium at the high school.

L.W. Stauffer, head of the Niles Publishing Co., which publishes the Niles Daily Times and five weekly newspapers, announces that the chain has been sold to Ingersoll Newspapers, headed by Ralph Ingersoll of Kingston, N.Y.

1966: Two Youngstown district men are among 33 members of the Fred Waring Pennsylvanians injured when their bus crashed in to the rear of a tractor-trailer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Somerset. They were Jerome Toti and James Wheeler.

Sharon Steel Corp. puts a new $115 million, 60-inch hot rolling mill into operation.

Harry N. Palmer Jr., teacher at Butler School for Retarded Children, is elected president of the Ohio Association of Teachers of Retarded Children at the 15th annual meeting in Columbus. Twenty-two teachers attended from Youngstown.

1941: The body of Lt. William Birrell, son of former Trumbull County Prosecutor George H. Birrell, is recovered from the burned hulk of an Army P-40 training plane that crashed during heavy fog in the Sierra Nevada National Forest.

The Youngstown Business and Professional Women’s Club will stress health among its members and the community. The program urges a campaign that will “strengthen democracy for defense by raising health standards.”

The Youngstown Civic Forum will present four speakers in their 1941-42 season. They are Mme. Genevieve Tabouis, Dr. A.L. Sachar, Maj. George Fielding Eliot and Jay Allen.