Today is Wednesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2004. There are 331 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2004. There are 331 days left in the year. On this date in 1789, electors unanimously choose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.
In 1783, Britain declares a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America. In 1801, John Marshall is sworn in as chief justice of the United States. In 1861, delegates from six southern states meet in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America. In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opens the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid. In 1941, the United Service Organizations (USO) comes into existence. In 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin begin a wartime conference at Yalta. In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1976, more than 22,000 people die when a severe earthquake strikes Guatemala and Honduras. In 1983, singer Karen Carpenter dies in Downey, Calif., at age 32. In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, Calif., finds O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
February 4, 1979: The 12,000 Lordstown employees of General Motors Corp. are virtually assured of steady and high-paid employment in 1979 because of government-mandated fuel economy standards that are forcing car makers to push production of smaller, more efficient cars.
A settlement is reached in the week-old protest by dissident Conrail yard workers in Lordstown and other Mahoning Valley rail yards.
Only a month into 1979, there has been a substantial increase in the civil and criminal cases filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, a development that may indicate the need for another judge on the local bench, says Elwyn V. Jenkins, administrative court judge.
February 4, 1964: A $900 armed robbery breaks up a bingo game in the basement of Our Lady of Hungary Church, N. Belle Vista Avenue, but within three hours Youngstown police arrest two 19-year-old North Side men and three more suspects are being sought.
Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co. fills orders for $285,000 worth of tinplate in Turkey through financing provided by the U.S. foreign aid program.
A 33-year-old Beaver, Pa., bulldozer operator, James R. Griffin, is crushed to death by the dozer he was using to cover garbage at a land-fill dump he operated on the old Fink Farm near East Palestine.
General American Transportation Corp.'s plant at Masury is given a $3 million contract to build 1,297 polyurethane-insulated tank cars for the Corn Products Co.
February 4, 1954: Movie Cowboy Gene Autry, during a visit to Youngstown to appear at Stambaugh Auditorium, meets with four local boys who have undergone rehabilitation for heart ailments under the auspices of the Youngstown Heart Association. Autry posed with Paul Vogel, Jimmy Cleal, Andy Ciarniello and Robert Walsh to promote "Heart Sunday."
Creation of a new federal judgeship for northern Ohio by Congress brings speculation that the unused federal court room in the Youngstown Post office building may be the site for the new court.
Frank J. Lausche, Democratic incumbent, and James A. Rhodes, the hard-campaigning young Republican who is state auditor, will battle it out alone for the Ohio governorship. No one filed to oppose the presumed front-runners in the primary -- a first in more than 40 years.
February 4, 1929: Bert B. Buckley, Ohio state treasurer, is convicted by a federal jury in Columbus on all 10 counts of conspiracy to violate prohibition law and attempted bribery. He says he will appeal.
While Youngstown ranks first among Ohio cities in home ownership, construction in the city shows a trend toward construction of larger apartment houses that accommodate 10 or more families, says Building Inspector Philip Kreuzwueser.
A daughter born to Mr. and Mrs. F.A. McMaster is the first child born in the new maternity unit of St. Elizabeth Hospital.
Mahoning Prosecutor Ray L. Thomas opens in investigation into charges by Sheriff Adam Stone that two girls, 14- and 15-years-old, were found to be drunk during a raid on the Spanish Room at the Hotel Ohio. Forty bottles containing liquor or the remnants of same were found under tables in the room during the raid.