Today is Saturday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2017. There are 71 days left in the year.

Today is Saturday, Oct. 21, the 294th day of 2017. 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 date) by reciting, for the first time, the original version of “The Pledge of Allegiance,” written by Francis Bellamy for The Youth’s Companion.

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.

1941: Superheroine Wonder Woman debuts in All-Star Comics issue No. 8.

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

2007: Wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds kill one person near San Diego and destroy several homes and a church in Malibu.

2012: Former senator and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, 90, dies in Sioux Falls, S.D.

2016: Cyberattacks on server farms of a key internet firm repeatedly disrupt access to major websites and online services including Twitter, Netflix and PayPal across the United States.

VINDICATOR FILES

1992: The Warren Board of Education issues photo ID badges to all students in grades 7 through 12, prompting at least one parent to say he had filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union.

A tabloid newspaper reports that U.S. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, is one of five senators who are actually space aliens. Through a spokesman, Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, says: “The Weekly World News found me out. But the common characteristic with several of us is we’re bald – just look around you, we’re everywhere.”

A Pittsburgh couple files a class-action lawsuit against Phar-Mor Inc. officials in hopes of recouping millions of dollars for small investors who had shares of the company.

1977: Youngstown District steel operations drop to 52 percent of capacity, the lowest in years, as U.S. Steel Corp. cuts back from four to three open hearths at the Ohio Works.

The Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. has developed long-range plans to build a sprawling 340-acre commercial and residential complex at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Tibbetts Wick Road in Liberty Township.

Three Austintown firemen, Robert Pounds, Ralph Kistler III and John Mulholland, are injured when an explosion at an arson fire they were fighting at 5506 Webb Road blew them into another room.

1967: Interconnecting Waterway Inc. has terminated its fight for the Lake Erie-Ohio River Waterway, President L.F. Donnell announces. Congress terminated appropriations for planning the canal after Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond Shafer said his state would not cooperate.

Hugh Frost, Republican candidate for mayor, will talk in Washington with Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois about low-cost public housing.

Two firms submitted apparently low bids at City Hall on plans for demolishing buildings in the urban-renewal project downtown: Ohio Construction Co and United Excavating Co.

1942: Youngstown’s second community Fellowship of Democracy and Religion conference will be held Nov. 8-15, with more than 60 meetings and six speakers planned.

Adeline Zimmer, a nurse from Girard, is commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army and leaves for Fort Breckenridge, Ky.

Cleaning of the Trinity Methodist Church at Front and Phelps streets by sandblasting is halted by building inspector Paul Boucherle after dust falls on cars and pedestrians.