Today is Wednesday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2004. There are 317 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2004. There are 317 days left in the year. On this date in 1885, Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is published in the United States for the first time.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis is sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala. In 1930, the ninth planet of our solar system, Pluto, is discovered. In 1960, the Eighth Winter Olympic Games are formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Nixon. In 1970, the Chicago Seven defendants are found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention. In 1972, the California Supreme Court strikes down the state's death penalty. In 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, goes on its maiden flight above the Mojave Desert. In 2001, auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. dies from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.
February 18, 1979: Temperatures at Youngstown Municipal Airport dip to a shivering 14 degrees below zero, a record for February.
Residents using the automated stamp dispensing machine in the lobby of Youngstown's main post office are not pleased with it. There have been a number of complaints that the machine takes the customer's money but doesn't dispense stamps.
Pat Cook of Struthers wins the Greater Youngstown Metropolitan Area Cribbage Tournament. Laird Cormell of Poland came in second.
February 18, 1964: Mayor Anthony Flask names Law Director Patrick Melillo to head a five-member commission that will make recommendations on clearing old records from the seventh floor of city hall so it can be used for office space.
Payments amounting to $4 million were made to welfare clients in Mahoning County and an additional $881,633 was spent for medical and hospital costs during 1963, according to the Ohio Department of Public Welfare.
The U.S. steel industry could have provided an additional 40,000 jobs in 1963 if imports of steel had been held to the level of 1953-1957, says John P. Roche, president of the American Iron and Steel Institute.
February 18, 1954: Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge James Connell, recommended by Sen. John W. Bricker as the new federal judge for the Cleveland District, will probably sit in Youngstown because of lack of court space in Cleveland.
An Army demolition squad and Youngstown police crime lab technicians explode seven abandoned land mines that were discovered as the waters receded in McKelvey Lake. Truscon Steel Division officials say the mines were among those that had been left in half-track trucks the army sent to Truscon during World War II. Drivers of the trucks threw the mines into the lake to dispose of them; when Truscon found out, it retrieved as many as it could find and turned them over to the army.
A walkout by 400 production workers at the Youngstown Steel Car Corp. in Niles halts production. The dispute centered on four workers' being sent home for exceeding the six-minute limit on coffee breaks.
February 18, 1929: The national football rules committee, after meeting in a two-day secret session, announces adoption of a radical new gridiron rule, making fumbled balls dead at the point of recovery when recovered by the defensive team.
Youngstown Municipal Court showed receipts of $128,861 in the criminal branch and $13,338 in the civil branch. Operating expenses were $41,604, leaving a balance of $100,595.
Girard police are trying to establish the identity of a 2-day-old baby whose body was found in a thicket near the Standard Textile plant by two boys.