Today is Friday, Aug. 20, the 233rd day of 2004. There are 133 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Friday, Aug. 20, the 233rd day of 2004. There are 133 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations begin invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dub-cek's regime.
In 1833, Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, is born in North Bend, Ohio. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declares the Civil War over, months after the fighting had stopped. In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pays tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." In 1953, the Soviet Union publicly acknowledges it has tested a hydrogen bomb. In 1955, hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria. In 1977, the U.S. launches Voyager Two, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature. In 1979, swimmer Diana Nyad succeeds in her third attempt at swimming from the Bahamas to Florida.
August 20, 1979: Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes escorts a 12-member trade delegation from China around the Ohio State Fair, where they seemed impressed by a 225-pound squash and a 51-pound turkey, but a bit puzzled when served hamburgers.
James Traficant, director of the Mahoning County Drug Program, said narcotics units of police departments in Mahoning and Trumbull counties would have more success if they cooperated more.
August 20, 1964: Hundreds of eager buyers appear at The Vindicator's downtown office to buy copies of the paper, which is being published despite a strike by the American Newspaper Guild.
Niles Mayor Carmen DeChristofaro says his city is still interested in furnishing water to the new General Motors plant in Lordstown. Warren had been selected to provide service, but GM officials have been unable to finalize an agreement.
August 20, 1954: Abram P. Steckel, 433 Crandall Ave., an inventor whose work revolutionized the steel industry more than two decades ago, dies of a heart attack at his home. He was 75. The Steckel process for high-speed cold and hot rolling of metals helped produce a worldwide change in the industry.
Mahoning County commissioners ask Youngstown City Council to allow residents of the Rockwell Road area of Austintown Township to pump sewage into the city sewer system because of dangerous conditions resulting from overflowing septic tanks.
August 20, 1929: Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge J.H.C. Lyon issues a temporary restraining order barring directors of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District from paying $40,000 to opponents of the water system as the cost of settling a lawsuit aimed at stopping construction of the Meander Dam.
David Robins, a representative of Warner Bros. in Youngstown, says a hotel of between 300 and 500 rooms will be built in conjunction with the new Warner Bros. theater that is to be erected in W. Federal Street.