Today is Thursday, July 31, the 212th day of 2003. There are 153 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, July 31, the 212th day of 2003. There are 153 days left in the year. On this date in 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, is made a major-general in the American Continental Army.
In 1556, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus -- the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers -- dies in Rome. In 1875, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, dies in Carter Station, Tenn., at age 66. In 1919, Germany's Weimar Constitution is adopted. In 1948, President Truman helps dedicate New York International Airport at Idlewild Field, later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport. In 1964, the American space probe Ranger 7 transmits pictures of the moon's surface. In 1972, Democratic vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdraws from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosures Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment. In 1981, a seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ends.
July 31, 1978: A group calling itself Citizens Concerned for City Survival are gearing up their opposition to a proposed $1.9 million low- to moderate-income housing project proposed for the northern end of East Palestine.
Adm. Ben Moreell, founder of the Seabees, the U.S. Navy's famed construction battalions, dies of cancer in Pittsburgh, where he had lived since 1947 and where he served as board chairman, president and chief executive officer of Jones & amp; Laughlin Steel Corp.
A two-car drag race on Market St. turns into a high-speed police chase throughout the South Side, ending in a crash involving a police cruiser and one of the fleeing cars. Patrolmen H. Michael Campbell, 28, and Michael Bishop, 26, are released after hospital treatment, as is the driver of the car.
July 31, 1963: The Taylor-Winfield Corp. in Warren will spend $300,000 to build two new structures for assembly of welders and machinery and to provide additional shipping space.
Fred B. Rooney, a 37-year-old liberal Democrat, defeats Robert G. Bartlett, 31, a conservative Republican, in a race for the seat left vacant by the death of U. S. Rep. Francis Walter. The race had been seen as a referendum on the policies of President Kennedy.
Mahoning County will put some of its juveniles to work while they are on probation, Juvenile Court Judge Harold S. Ricert Sr. and Sheriff Ray T. Davis announce. They will rake and clean the beaches around Berlin Reservoir, Little League fields and other special projects.
July 31, 1953: The Ohio Highway Patrol fears the Pennsylvania Turnpike maniac killer is loose in northeastern Ohio with the near-fatal shooting of a West Virginia truck driver as he slept in his empty truck on U.S. 30 near Lisbon. The circumstances resemble the two fatal shootings of drivers on the Pennsylvania pike. Aroused Youngstown district truck drivers are mapping plans for an organized hunt for the assailant and Teamsters official John Angelo proposes that "protective squads" be organized to roam the highways.
U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft, a symbol of Republicanism in the nation and in Ohio, dies of cancer in New York City at the age of 63. He was the son of William Howard Taft, who served as governor-general of the Philippines, secretary of War, president and chief justice of the United States.
Margaret Duncan and Janet Ogden join the staff of the teen-age department of the YWCA and June Blanchard assumes the duties of young adult program director at the Y. Miss Duncan is a graduate of Tennessee State University and Miss Ogden is a graduate of Bethany College.
July 31, 1928: Youngstown Finance Director James E. Jones makes a $500 down payment to Dan Mulane, real estate man, toward purchase of about six acres in Andrews Hollow, which will allow the city to extend Crandall Park all the way to Logan Road. The total purchase price from several owners will be $7,500.
Youngstown Mayor Joseph Heffernan and First Ward Councilman Gus A. Doeright demand that the Erie Railroad include in its specifications on grade elimination work in the city that union-rate wages will be paid.
Youngstown schools will be in serious financial condition for the last half of 1928 if receipts from taxes being collected are much below the amount levied for school purposes. Only $3 million of the $6 million assessment for the county has been collected, and the treasurer's office doubts that any more than a total of $5 million will be collected by the deadline, less than a week away.