Today is Thursday, July 17, the 198th day of 2003. There are 167 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, July 17, the 198th day of 2003. There are 167 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill begin meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II.
In 1821, Spain cedes Florida to the United States. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Spanish troops in Santiago, Cuba, surrender to U.S. forces. In 1917, the British royal family adopts the name "Windsor." In 1935, the entertainment trade publication Variety runs its famous headline, "Sticks Nix Hick Pix" -- which might be translated as "Rural America rejects rural-themed movies." In 1944, 322 people are killed when a pair of ammunition ships explode in Port Chicago, Calif. In 1955, Disneyland debuts in Anaheim, Calif. In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docks with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind. In 1979, Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigns and flees into exile in Miami. In 1981, 114 people are killed when a pair of walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapse during a "tea dance." In 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, explodes and crashes off New York's Long Island shortly after departing John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people aboard.
July 17, 1978: Thomas O. Williams, 36, chief photographer for the Sandusky Register and a former Youngstown area resident, is injured in downtown Sandusky when a manhole cover blasts off near his feet, knocking him to the ground as he was taking pictures.
Youngstown Water Department meter readers get new blue uniforms and photo ID cards, which should make residents, especially senior citizens, more comfortable allowing meter readers in their homes.
Bob Hope has been booked as the Saturday night grandstand attraction at the Canfield Fair. He is the biggest name in entertainment ever to appear at the fair and will present performances at 6:30 and 9 p.m.
July 17, 1963: A 16-year-old New Castle youth who defied danger by climbing in and out of Idora Park's Jackrabbit rollercoaster is killed before horrified onlookers as he is hurled from the front car as it makes its final dips. Richard Dennis Nelson was pronounced dead at South Side Hospital.
A state liquor enforcement agent is bitten while assisting Youngstown police in the arrest of a 22-year-old woman after she solicited the agent for immoral purposes in Wood St. near Belmont Ave.
Portage and Trumbull counties ask Gov. James A. Rhodes to declare the counties drought disaster areas. Geauga and Ashtabula counties have already made similar requests.
July 17, 1953: Peter J. Fetchet, 32, of Youngstown, who recently purchased a federal gambling tax stamp, pleads innocent before Municipal Judge Forrest J. Cavalier to a charge of being a "known gambler." Fetchet has been awaiting trial on the charge for 11 months.
Sales tax revenue in Mahoning County increases $615,675 in the year ending June 30, state Treasurer Roger W. Tracy reports. The new high was $5.6 million.
The Girard Board of Health tables for further study a resolution demanding that property owners in the Flats, a ramshackle area beneath the Girard-McDonald viaduct, put their dwellings in a sanitary condition.
July 17, 1928: Two Trumbull County boys, one 21 and the other 19, one the son of Sheriff J.H. Smith and the other a son of a well-known Gustavus farmer, die while bathing. Ronald Smith, a student at Dana Musical Institute, died at Craig Beach, Lake Milton, and Francis Logan drowned in Pymatuning Creek.
Arthur Knox, 10, of 201 W. Earl Ave., Youngstown, is fatally wounded by imitating trick shooting he had seen his father perform. His body was found in front of a mirror in the home, a pistol in his hand.
Under a recommendation made by the street committee of the city planning commission, a minimum width of 40 feet and depth of 100 will be established for all city lots.