Today is Saturday, Aug. 21, the 234th day of 2004. There are 132 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, Aug. 21, the 234th day of 2004. There are 132 days left in the year. On this date in 1904, jazz musician and bandleader William "Count" Basie is born in Red Bank, N.J.
In 1831, former slave Nat Turner leads a violent insurrection in Virginia. (He is later executed.) In 1858, the famous debates between Senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas begin. In 1878, the American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga, N.Y. In 1940, exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky dies in Mexico City from wounds inflicted by an assassin. In 1944, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China open talks at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington that help pave the way for establishment of the United Nations. In 1945, President Truman ends the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50 billion in aid to America's allies during World War II. In 1959, President Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. In 1984, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro appears before reporters in Queens, N.Y., to field questions about her family's finances. In 1991, the hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapses in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin. In 1993, in a serious setback for NASA, engineers lose contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft as it is about to reach the Red Planet on a $980 million mission. In 1994, The House, by a vote of 235-195, passes a $30 billion crime bill that bans certain assault-style firearms; Mexico holds its presidential election, which is won by Ernesto Zedillo.
August 21, 1979: Seven state legislators and top Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials are meeting at the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District to study how chemical wastes at a dump 20 miles away in Portage County might affect the area's drinking water.
Delane Berarducci of Canfield is chosen 1979 Columbus Day Queen by the Youngstown Columbus Day Committee. She represented the Latin Culture Foundation in the competition.
A "cash flow" problem has hit Ohio, which could require further tightening of financial belts, at least temporarily, in school districts across the state. The state lacks $80 million needed to meet school subsidies in coming months.
August 21, 1964: Some 38 civic and professional groups are invited by the NAACP education committee to attend a meeting at the YWCA to organize a community reading program.
Charles B. Cushwa Jr., president and chairman of Commercial Shearing & amp; Stamping Co., scores a hole in one on the No. 15, par 195, hole at Youngstown Country Club.
August 21, 1954: Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s transformer division in Sharon is strikebound, idling nearly 6,000 employees. The International Electrical Workers Union walked off the job over 17 pending grievances.
With the peak of the polio season yet to come, Youngstown area residents hear renewed appeals for contributions to the emergency fund of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The area has had 19 polio cases already this year.
Christian leaders from many lands, meeting in Evanston, Ill, are told that racial segregation is "the greatest scandal in the church, especially in the United States and South Africa."
August 21, 1929: Youngstown City Council appropriates $50,000 for improving and further developing Lansdowne Field. The money will be used to buy more land to generally improve the municipal airport, which is under the direction of Lionel Evans, airport commissioner.
Salem Mayor Phil Hiddleson, who was defeated for renomination on the Democratic ticket by 82 votes, files his expense account. "Received nothing, spent nothing and got what I paid for" was written across the paper.
A 23-year-old Shehy Street man is fined $500 and sentenced to six months in prison on a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which stemmed from his getting a 14-year-old girl drunk.