Today is Tuesday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2004. There are 332 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2004. There are 332 days left in the year. On this date in 1959, a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claims the lives of rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
In 1690, the first paper money in America is issued by the colony of Massachusetts. (The currency is used to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.) In 1783, Spain recognizes U.S. independence. In 1809, the territory of Illinois is created. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, is ratified. In 1916, Canada's original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa, burn down. In 1917, the United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In 1924, the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, dies in Washington at age 67. In 1930, the chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigns for health reasons. In 1943, during World War II, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sinks after being hit by a torpedo. (Four Army chaplains give their life belts to four other men, and go down with the ship.) In 1995, the space shuttle Discovery blasts off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.
February 3, 1979: Sharon Steel Corp., one of the steel industry's more prosperous mid-sized companies, will spend $14.5 million to install six additional soaking pits at its 44-inch blooming mill in Farrell.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declares in Tehran that he hopes to create an Islamic republic in Iran through peaceful means, but threatens holy war if the government of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar resists.
Two reclusive sisters, Helen and Josephine Misinaj, both in their 60s, are found dead, apparently of natural causes, in their Struthers home and the frozen body of Mrs. Victoria Kupec, 69, is found in her unheated cottage in Lake Milton.
February 3, 1964: Two U.S. navy men, one a Youngstowner, are killed near Cadiz, Spain, trying to save their 6-year-old sons from death under the wheels of a freight train. Specialist 1st Class Thomas E. Barton Jr., 38, was killed and his son, Dennis, critically injured. Also killed were Lt. John F. Welsh Jr., 29, of Steubenville, and his son, Patrick.
Educational TV debuts in Youngstown district public schools and is pronounced a real success by two superintendents, W.C. Smith of the county schools, and Dr. J. Harry Wanamaker of Youngstown schools.
Gambling raids at the homes of six veterans organizations and two fraternal clubs are conducted in Mercer County by 22 Pennsylvania state troopers. Eleven men representing the organizations are arrested for operating "fish bowls" from which gambling chances were sold.
February 3, 1954: A new J.C. Penney Co. department store, a building of 34,000 square feet that has a parking lot for 1,500 automobiles, opens at the Mahoning Shopping Plaza. Florescent lighting provides modern illumination throughout and the store is air conditioned.
Atty. Paul R. Van Such, 37-year-old Campbell solicitor, says he hopes to do as good a job cleaning up gambling in the city's pool rooms as the State Liquor Control Board has done in eliminating gambling from the taverns.
Work has begun on the fourth and last phase of a multi-million dollar rehabilitation program of Republic Steel Corp.'s Youngstown coke and coal chemicals plant, John H. Graft, district manager, announces.
February 3, 1929: C. S. MacCalla, vice president and general manager of the Pennsylvania-Ohio Power & amp; Light Co., says Youngstown has a dark cloud of smoke and soot hanging over it at 6,000 feet, which explains dark snow, dark rain and why Youngstown aviators have sooty faces when they land.
Halls, wards, aisles, sunrooms and corridors of Youngstown Hospital are crowded with beds and patients, but some new admissions must still be turned away. "We have been doing the best we can under the circumstance," says Byron W. Steward, superintendent of the hospital.
Youngstown's chief probation officer, William A. Cleaver, and Federal Immigration officer Steve Sullivan of Cleveland, agree on a plan of action to deport alien parents who fail to properly support their children.