Today is Sunday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2003. There are 150 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2003. There are 150 days left in the year. On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that takes him to the present-day Americas.
In 1914, Germany declares war on France. In 1923, Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, following the death of Warren G. Harding. In 1936, the State Department urges Americans in Spain to leave because of that country's civil war. In 1943, Gen. George S. Patton slaps a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. Patton is later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize. In 1949, the National Basketball Association is formed. In 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. In 1980, closing ceremonies are held in Moscow for the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, which had been boycotted by dozens of countries, including the United States. In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers go on strike, despite a warning from President Reagan they would be fired, which they were. In 1987, the Iran-Contra congressional hearings end, with none of the 29 witnesses tying President Reagan directly to the diversion of arms-sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels. In 1994, Stephen G. Breyer is sworn in as the Supreme Court's newest justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's summer home in Vermont.
August 3, 1978: Youngstown Public Schools Superintendent Emanuel Catsoules says implementation of a court-ordered teacher desegregation plan will being immediately and should not require hiring any additional personnel.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development rejects all $15.3 million in grant requests applied for under the Community Development Act by municipalities and other subdivisions in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Most of the grants sought funds for sewer, water and home rehabilitation projects.
Disputing a grand jury report, downtown trade representatives and others concerned with the well-being of Youngstown, say there is less risk of a criminal encounter in the downtown area than just about anywhere else in the city.
August 3, 1963: Federal, state and local liquor agents uncover a 55-gallon still in a South Side attic after the occupant of the St. Louis Ave. home sold an undercover agent five gallons of moonshine. The 33-year-old man has been booked on charges of possession of untaxed whisky and possession of an unregistered still.
Richard J. Barrett, Democratic candidate for mayor of Youngstown, will withdraw as a candidate, bringing a radical change in the outlook for Youngstown municipal elections in November. Barrett underwent brain surgery at North Side Hospital. The party's central committee will choose a successor candidate.
A bomb explodes on the New York Central tracks in Ashtabula minutes after a freight train passed the spot near the north 57th and Main streets railroad bridge. The bomb left a four-foot crater in the southbound roadbed.
It cost $917 to serve 2,655 meals at the Columbiana County Jail during July, according to Sheriff Russell J. VanFossan's monthly report to commissioners.
August 3, 1953: The Most Rev. Emmet M. Walsh, bishop of the Youngstown Diocese, gives the principal address at the ground-breaking ceremonies for a $4.5 million modernization program at St. Elizabeth Hospital He praises the Sisters of the Holy Humility of Mary for their dedication to providing care for the sick.
Highway patrolmen in Ohio and Pennsylvania are maintaining car checkpoints in the two-state area in an effort to arrest the man who killed two truckers on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and wounded one while he slept near Lisbon.
Three more polio cases are reported in Youngstown, bringing to 27 the number of patients treated for the disease in Youngstown Hospitals this season.
Pennsylvania state police believe they have solved a wave of burglaries in Mercer County with the arrest of three Jackson Center youths.
The Packard Motor Co. reports net earnings after taxes of $6 million for the first six months of 1953, equivalent to 40 cents a share. The company reported earnings of $3 million and 21 cents a share during the same period a year earlier.
August 3, 1928: Four justices of the peace elected in Mahoning County outside the city have been permanently ousted from Youngstown and ordered to discontinue holding any court in the city. They are Charles Martin of Boardman; Charles Hardesty of Austintown, Fred E. Williams of Berlin Township and C.E. Bailey of Coitsville.
C.H. Kennedy, president of the Commercial National Bank, is elected a director of the Chamber of Commerce to succeed Father M.F. Griffin, who resigned when he was reassigned from St. Edward Church in Youngstown to a Cleveland parish.
America wins its first and only track event of the 1928 Olympics as stout-hearted Ray Barbuti fights his way to an eight-inch margin of victory over James Ball of Canada in the 400-meter run.