YEARS AGO FOR OCT. 24

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 24, the 297th day of 2018. There are 68 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War and effectively destroys the Holy Roman Empire.

1861: The first transcontinental telegraph message is sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.

1939: Nylon stockings are sold publicly for the first time in Wilmington, Del.

1940: The 40-hour work week goes into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

1945: The United Nations officially comes into existence as its charter takes effect.

1962: A naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy goes into effect during the missile crisis.

1972: Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, dies in Stamford, Conn., at age 53.

1989: Former television evangelist Jim Bakker is sentenced by a judge in Charlotte, N.C., to 45 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. (The sentence was later reduced to four years.)

2005: Civil-rights icon Rosa Parks dies in Detroit at age 92.

2008: Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother are slain in their Chicago home.

2017: Rock ’n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino dies at 89.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: After a year of preparation, Exal Corp., the first company to occupy former LTV Steel land in Youngstown, begins producing aerosol cans.

A proposed test program that would let parents use public money to send their children to private schools picks up support from Ohio House finance chairman Patrick Sweeney, a Cleveland Democrat.

Coach Jim Tressel’s Youngstown State University Penguins beat Samford University, 24-7, before 15,194 fans at Stambaugh Stadium, the eighth-straight win at home.

1978: A Youngstown State University study says 1,200 to 1,500 of the estimated 4,200 men laid off in September from the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.’s Campbell Works, are still unemployed and estimates that 5,000 men, women and children face a severe financial strain this winter.

Concerned Citizens for Responsible Government in Hubbard say the city should consider getting out of the electricity business and allow residents to buy their power directly from Ohio Edison Co.

Youngstown State University head football coach Bill Narduzzi says the Penguins’ 27-3 victory over Akron “is the most gratifying victory we’ve had since I’ve been at YSU.”

1968: The Wick Park-Stambaugh Auditorium area hosts a rally for third-party presidential candidate George Wallace, former governor of Alabama.

The Greater Youngstown AFL-CIO Council headed by Al Shipka, which refused to endorse operating levies for Youngstown public schools and the Mahoning County vocational school, is criticized by 5th Ward Councilman Jack Hunter, a Republican.

1943: Civilians will have turkey on Thanksgiving after all. The embargo on turkey sales in effect since Aug. 2 will be lifted in November because the armed services have the 12 million pounds of turkey needed for the troops.

Chester Bowles, general manager of the Office of Price Administration, says there will be no rationing of coal this winter on a coupon basis. He urges customers in the northeast to supplement anthracite with bituminous coal.