Today is Wednesday, Aug. 25, the 238th day of 2004. There are 128 days left in the year. On this

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 25, the 238th day of 2004. There are 128 days left in the year. On this date in 1944, during World War II, Paris is liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.
In 1875, Capt. Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, getting from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours. In 1916, the National Park Service is established within the Department of the Interior. In 1921, the United States signs a peace treaty with Germany. In 1943, U.S. forces overrun New Georgia in the Solomon Islands during World War II. In 1944, Romania declares war on Germany. In 1950, President Truman orders the Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike. In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager II comes within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet. In 1998, retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell dies in Richmond, Va., at age 90.
August 25, 1979: General Motors will shut down the Space Center Ohio rail terminal on state Route 45, threatening an undetermined number of jobs at Anchor Motor Freight Co.
Sharon Steel Corp. plans to sell $50 million worth of debentures, possibly to help finance take-over genius Victor Posner's stepped-up program of buying chunks of other companies' shares or even grabbing financial control of them.
Information, not physical objects, may be the major product of human endeavor in the post-industrial period ahead, Hartford N. Gunn Jr., vice chairman of the board of Public Broadcasting Services, tells Youngstown State University's 522 summer graduates.
August 25, 1964: Bob Shave Jr. of Cleveland finishes with a 137, four over par, to win the 36-hole Youngstown Open at Mill Creek Golf Course.
Joe Flynn, the Youngstown native who plays the ill-tempered Capt. Wallace Binghamton in ABC-TV's "McHale's Navy," says he would like to try some different things, movies, TV and plays.
August 25, 1954: Youngstown City Engineer James C. Ryan says his department is considering adding an 80-foot long sheltered sidewalk where persons waiting for buses would be protected from rain and snow to the streamlined Central Square.
Mayor Frank X. Kryzan expresses confidence in his police department, describing it as 100 percent honest, but warns, "If it becomes evident that there are dishonest policemen, I will take steps to have them convicted."
Lockheed Aircraft Corp. unveils its new high-speed military troop and cargo carrier, the Air Force YC130 turbo-prop transport. The plane can carry loads of up to 20 tons and is powered by four 3,750 h.p. engines.
August 25, 1929: Youngstown City Council members say they will fight to get lower gas rates for Youngstown when the present franchise with East Ohio Gas Co. expires.
Youngstown joins the list of cities that will greet new residents with a "Welcome Car," a smart Studebaker Brougham that will deliver a variety of Youngstown products and cou-pons to new families in town.
The great book about the war, the absorbing "All Quiet on the Western Front," begins in serial form in The Vindicator.
Two patents, one for a bird-like airplane that its inventor claims will rise and land in its own length, and the other a propeller design to work in adverse wind conditions, are granted to Adolph Schertz, 35, of Youngstown by the U.S. Patent Office.