Today is Sunday, Aug. 8, the 221st day of 2004. There are 145 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Aug. 8, the 221st day of 2004. There are 145 days left in the year. On this date in 1974, President Nixon announces he will resign after new damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte sets sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile. In 1876, Thomas A. Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph. In 1945, President Truman signs the United Nations Charter. In 1945, the Soviet Union declares war against Japan during World War II.
In 1953, the United States and South Korea initial a mutual security pact. In 1963, Britain's "Great Train Robbery" takes place as thieves make off with 2.6 million pounds in bank notes. In 1968, Richard M. Nixon is nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
In 1978, the United States launches Pioneer Venus 2, which carry scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus. In 1999, opening a new attack on the Republican tax-cut measure, President Clinton warns the nation's governors at their meeting in St. Louis that the $792 billion package would trigger "huge cuts" in Medicare, farm programs and other spending critical to their voters. In 2003, the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese offers $55 million to settle lawsuits stemming from sex abuse by priests. (The archdiocese later settles for $85 million.)
August 8, 1979: Two Youngstown area men, a pawnbroker and a Youngstown man awaiting trial in a $1 million jewelry heist, are arrested for planning to rob an armored car in the Pittsburgh suburb of Valencia.
A 53-year-old Chicago man who says he lived day to day for five years believing he was dying of leukemia finds out he never had the disease. He is suing the doctor who misdiagnosed him in 1979 for $200,000.
A Birmingham Ala., engineering firm files a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in federal court charging Commercial Shearing Co. of Youngstown with providing inferior materials that resulted in collapse of a dam outside Greenville, S.C.,
The Hoover Co. of North Canto reports record sales of $182 million for its worldwide operation in the second quarter, compared with $176 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
August 8, 1964: Mrs. Dora Schwebel, 76, of 543 Madera Ave., one of Youngstown's leading business executives and humanitarians, dies in North Side Hospital. She was president and treasurer of the Schwebel Baking Co., which she founded with her husband in 1908.
Two Alliance youths are jailed after a brawl at Idora Park, and one of the youths is charged with possession of an illegal knife.
William B. McKelvey, president and general manager of the G.M. McKelvey Co., announces plans for a $2 million expansion and renovation of its downtown Youngstown store. A self-service parking garage will be built west of the present building. The announcement is the latest expression of confidence in downtown Youngstown, after announcement of a $2 million Legal Arts Center across from the Courthouse and a $3 million mall on the site of the Palace theater.
A collision on the Ohio Turnpike near Norwalk kills three members of a Warren family: Angelo Iannucci, 43, a general foreman at Packard Electric Division of General Motors, his wife, Esther, 40, and their son, Michael, 7.
August 8, 1954: Barbara M. Quinlan of Alliance is crowned Miss Ohio. The 20-year-old Ohio State University coed entered the contest from the Canton area and is the third straight "Miss Dennison" to win the state title.
Youngstown district industrial and retail firms and homeowners have invested at least $800 million in the area during the last dozen years, according to a survey by the Greater Youngstown Area Foundation. It tallied up what has been spent on expansions, improvements and new construction during the period and estimated that $50 million more will be spent over the next two years.
The overriding urgency of national defense seems to be winning over a significant number of Youngstown area community leaders, who are voicing support for establishment of a proposed Air Force reserve base at the Youngstown Municipal Airport. Mayor Frank X. Kryzan is opposed to the center.
August 8, 1929: Ohio State University Professor James Snook, taking the stand in his own defense, says he struck and killed coed Theora Hix with a hammer because he feared for his own life. He said he believed the girl, with whom he has been romantically linked, had a gun in her purse and meant to kill him after they quarreled in a car on a deserted rifle range.
Bill Forrest, creator of the popular comic strip "Tailspin Tommy" that appears in The Vindicator, flies into Youngstown in the Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh air mail plane of Harry Sievers, and talks briefly to area pilots, looking for ideas for his strip. A half-hour later, he is back in the air, continuing a whirlwind tour of the United States and Canada.
A.W. Beard, manager of Peerless Dairy at 1589 Mahoning Ave. is arrested by Patrolman Thomas Boer on a charge of maintaining a nuisance after neighbors complain that an engine at the plant with an inadequate stack causes soot and dust to spread throughout the neighborhood, making it impossible for them to sit on their own porches.