Today is Friday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2003. There are 362 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2003. There are 362 days left in the year. On this date in 1777, Gen. George Washington's army routs the British in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
In 1521, Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1833, Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. (Almost 150 years later, Argentina seizes the islands from the British, but Britain takes them back after a 74-day war.) In 1868, the Meiji Restoration re-establishes the authority of Japan's emperor and heralds the fall of the military rulers known as "shoguns." In 1938, the "March of Dimes" campaign to fight polio is organized. In 1947, congressional proceedings are televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York get to see some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress. In 1959, President Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state. In 1961, the United States severes diplomatic relations with Cuba. In 1967, Jack Ruby, the man who shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies in a Dallas hospital. In 1990, ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrenders to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission. In 2000, the last new daily "Peanuts" strip by Charles Schulz runs in 2,600 newspapers.
January 3, 1978: Ernest E. Murphy, 52, and his wife, Doris Jean, 50, of Alliance die when their single-engine airplane crashes into a fog-covered mountain near Pearlsburg, Va. They were returning from a vacation in Georgia.
A desperate attempt by a father to save the life of his five-year-old stepson ends in death for both of them when a fire at their Kinsman mobile home triggers a furnace explosion. Donald Morris, 41, and Christopher Stiles, 5, are pronounced dead at Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
Mahoning County's first traffic fatality of the new year is recorded on Jan. 2 when David J. Bulick, 28, of Masury is killed by a tractor-trailer rig in I-80 in Austintown.
January 3, 1963: McKay Machine Co. will move its Federal-Warco Division's operations from Warren to its new $5 million Henricks Road plant as part of its streamlining program, President A.J. Wardle Jr. discloses.
The year 1962 was a snowy one, beginning and ending with extreme cold, reports Edwin Copeland, veteran weather observer in Millport, Columbiana County. Fifty-two inches of snow were registered, compared to a normal snowfall of 28.5 inches.
Atty. Frank P. Anzellotti Jr. is appointed city prosecutor by Mayor Harry N. Savasten.
Two Hollywood stars die within hours of each other, Jack Carson and Dick Powell.
January 3, 1953: Bids on the first 5.2 miles of the Ohio Turnpike from Gateway Interchange to South Range Road in Springfield Township are opened by the Ohio Turnpike Commission. Low bidder is the Harrison Construction Co. of Pittsburgh at $3.5 million.
Hoping up to the last minute for another reprieve, brothers Turman and Utah Wilson are hanged in Walla Walla, Wash., for the kidnap slaying of 18-year-old Joann Dewey. The brothers, 26 and 22 years old, showed no emotion as they stepped to the gallows.
Anthony "Zippy" Morocco, former Youngstown Ursuline star, is the sensation of the Southeastern Conference basketball competition, playing with the University of Georgia Bulldogs.
January 3, 1928: Youngstown's new mayor, Joseph Heffernan, and new Police Chief J.J. McNicholas declare war on professional gambling, liquor violations and vice.
The new trial of S.A. Lengel, former Canton police chief who was found guilty in connection with the murder of Don R. Mellett, Canton editor, will be held in Lisbon.
Rainfall during 1927 for the Mahoning-Columbiana district established a new record, according to L.H. Copeland, official weather observer at Millport. Total precipitation was 46 inches. Normal fall for the last 35 years has been 36.5 inches.