Today is Sunday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2004. There are 320 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2004. There are 320 days left in the year. On this date in 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blows up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain.
In 1564, astronomer Galileo Galilei is born in Pisa, Italy. In 1764, the city of St. Louis is established. In 1820, American suffragist Susan B. Anthony is born in Adams, Mass. In 1879, President Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court. In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escapes an assassination attempt in Miami that claims the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak. In 1942, the British colony Singapore surrenders to the Japanese during World War II. In 1961, 73 people, including an 18-member U.S. figure skating team en route to Czechoslovakia, are killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. In 1965, Canada's new maple-leaf flag is unfurled at ceremonies in Ottawa. In 1982, 84 men are killed when a huge oil-drilling rig, the Ocean Ranger, sinks off the coast of Newfoundland during a fierce storm. In 1989, the Soviet Union announces that the last of its troops has left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention.
February 15, 1979: Mrs. Jodi Masters, 19, a bride of five months, dies in an early morning fire that broke out at her frame house at 32 Scioto Ave. in Boardman while her husband was away doing the family laundry in Canfield.
The Mahoning County grand jury indicts four teen-age boys on charges of aggravated murder in the deaths of two men and two women during the commission of armed robberies.
A controversial proposal to rezone 200 acres of land on Frampton Road from residential to airport is defeated by a 2-2 vote of the Hermitage commissioners.
State Rep. Thomas J. Carney, D-71st, introduces legislation in the Ohio House to move the date of the primary elections in the state from June back to May.
February 15, 1964: A Negro community leader and three members of his family flee their home in an all-white neighborhood in Warren after a kerosene-fed fire gutted the living room. W. Robert Smalls, executive director of the Warren Urban League, his wife, a daughter and a grandson escaped through a bedroom window at the home at 1988 Irene St. NE.
The Voyager Motor Inn in downtown Youngstown will add 60 guest rooms and 10 meeting rooms at a cost of $500,000. An enclosed swimming pool will be installed below ground level.
Grant E. Spong, widely known Youngstown industrial executive and civic leader, announces he will leave the city to become personnel director of Quaker Industries, a steel fabricator in Antioch, Ill.
February 15, 1954: Mrs. Swan, the last of the Crandall Park swans, dies after moping around for a week after neighborhood dogs killed the park's two other swans. Jack Connors, park caretaker, says Mrs. Swan died of a broken heart. She failed to respond to treatment by Drs. Tom and Nevin Craver.
Balmy breezes bring a touch of spring to Youngstown, sending the mercury to 65 degrees, the highest for the date in 32 years.
Heart Sunday canvass of Youngstown by 2,500 volunteers nets $14,000, drive chairman Howard A. Welch reports.
The executive committee of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce urges the city of Youngstown to refrain from building municipally owned parking lots at this time.
February 15, 1929: A new Youngstown department store will be opened by the Neal Co. in the former Cahn Furniture Store, 240 W. Federal St. Jack Rosenbloom, a former merchandise manager of the Fordyce Co., will be general manager of the new store.
Ohio Gov. Myers Y. Cooper signs a bill introduced by Sen. Nils P. Johnson enabling Youngstown and other cities that are members of sanitary water districts to finance part of the cost of obtaining a new water supply by increasing water rates.
Judge Frank L. Baldwin gives a 46-year-old Berlin Center man a suspended sentence on condition that he quit drinking, attend church regularly and support his seven children. He had been charged with furnishing liquor to his 17-year-old son. The son was sentenced to the industrial school in Lancaster on a charge of stealing chickens.
Gov. Myer Cooper names Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren to the new office of departmental representative in the state welfare department. She will have offices in the capitol, near the governor, and will consult with him and deal with women's organizations that are interested in welfare work.