Today is Wednesday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2017. There are 88 days left in the year.

October 4, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: Gen. George Washington’s troops launch an assault on the British at Germantown, Pa., resulting in heavy American casualties.

1822: The 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, is born in Delaware, Ohio.

1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.

The family sitcom “Leave It to Beaver” premieres on CBS.

1970: Rock singer Janis Joplin, 27, is found dead in her Hollywood hotel room.

1976: Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz resigns in the wake of a controversy over an obscene joke he’d made that was derogatory to blacks.

1991: Twenty-six nations, including the United States, sign the Madrid Protocol, which imposes a 50-year ban on oil exploration and mining in Antarctica.

2002: “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh receives a 20-year sentence after a sobbing plea for forgiveness before a federal judge in Alexandria, Va.

2007: Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, defiantly vows to serve out his term in office despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men’s room sex sting.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: Funding is being sought in four counties for a bicycle path that would stretch through Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties to provide a link for bicyclists from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

The Neshannock, Pa., chapter of Trout Unlimited files suit against Interstate Auto Auction Inc. charging that the business is discharging untreated water from a car wash and engine steam-cleaning system that violates federal clean stream regulations.

Actress Victoria Rowell, who plays Drucila on the soap opera, “The Young and the Restless,” speaks at the Youngstown Playhouse on the value of being a foster parent as part of an effort by the Northeast Ohio Adoption Services.

1977: The Rev. Terry Schoener, chairman of the Warren Area Clergy Association, says a communitywide group is needed to assist the city in developing an affirmative-action hiring program.

The Labor Department estimates that more than 60,000 American steelworkers have lost their jobs in 1977 because of steel imports.

Optimism supported by faith in the people of the Youngstown community to respond to the greater needs ahead marks the opening of United Appeal’s campaign for $2.2 million.

1967: A truck carrying 15,000 dozen eggs is involved in an accident near the Easter Seal Center. The driver, aided by center volunteers, sells the eggs for four dozen for $1, sharing the profits with the center.

A fine array of handmade articles is offered by the Senior Citizens Bazaar and Antique Sale at the General Fireproofing Union Hall.

A new parking lot more than doubling the capacity of the present one is being built at North Side Hospital along Goleta Avenue.

1942: Seaman Third Class Steve Dahms, in Youngstown on a hometown furlough, tells relatives that he celebrated the Fourth of July by shooting down a German plane that was attacking a convoy in the Barents Sea.

Ernest L. Gleason, 70, chief clerk of the New York Central Railroad in Youngstown, retires after 50 years service and says he will devote more time to his flowers. Of travel, he says, “I’d like to go to Florida, but there’s a war on.”

A stray calf found on Robinson Road is wearing out its welcome at the Campbell police station. Officers are taking turns feeding and watering it twice a day.