Today is Thursday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2004. There are 316 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2004. There are 316 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, during World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima, where they begin a monthlong battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.
In 1803, Congress votes to accept Ohio's borders and constitution. In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama. (He is subsequently tried for treason and acquitted.) In 1846, the Texas state government is formally installed in Austin. In 1878, Thomas Edison receives a patent for his phonograph. In 1881, Kansas becomes the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signs an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals living in the United States. In 1942, about 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin.
February 19, 1979: Top city officials, including Mayor Frank Dauria, man Salem's snowplows after city service workers refuse to respond to a work call on a holiday weekend. The workers had unanimously rejected the administration's latest wage proposal. They will be disciplined when they return to work on their regular schedules.
The body of Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, arrives in Washington and is met by President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance. He was shot to death in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Dr. J. Philip Wenette, a University of Michigan professor, speaking at the kickoff of the Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio's "Grab One" sales campaign, predicts that automobile sales in 1979 will equal those of 1978.
The four western Great Lakes are ice covered simultaneously for the first time since the National Weather Service began keeping records.
February 19, 1964: Trustees of the newly organized Auto Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio, which covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties, are: Hugh Anderson, Glen Sanzenbacher, Paul Martin, John W. Gough, Aura Wheeler, John Scofford, John Baglier, Robert Frederick and Charles Stiver.
Youngstown Mayor Anthony B. Flask declares that Youngstown will not pay 55 percent of Mahoning County's share of the $863,000 cost of a comprehensive transportation study for Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Flask agrees that the study is needed, but maintains that Youngstown won't receive 55 percent of the highway money and is being used to subsidize outlying areas.
Thousands of American steelworkers have lost their jobs because of increasing imports of foreign-made steel rods, wire and other products, says Allison R. Maxwell, president of Pittsburgh Steel Co., in testimony before the U.S. Tariff Commission.
February 19, 1954: The low waters of the Meander Reservoir yield 47 rusty old anti-tank mines and four highly sensitive live bazooka shells. It appears the ordnance was dumped in the reservoir in 1945 on the orders of an Army inspector from Cleveland. The mines had been spotted in the mud about a week earlier, but Austintown authorities did not realize what they were until news broke of a similar find in Lake McKelvey.
Clyde Elton Painter, 40, of Mahaffey, Pa., is rescued from a sewer cave-in in front of 646 Trumbull Ave., Warren. He was buried up to his chest when a ton of earth caved in on him in a 5-foot ditch. He is in critical condition in Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
The Citizens Bus Franchise Committee recommends to Youngstown City Council that the Youngstown Municipal Railway be required to provide bus service to Boardman and Austintown in return for renewal of operating rights within the city.
February 19, 1929: Five prisoners, among them Pat McDermott, slayer of Canton publisher Don Mellett, saw their way to freedom from the state penitentiary at Columbus. McDermott and two of the other prisoners were serving life prison terms.
The House appropriations committee is considering a recommendation by the director of the budget that a number of claims against the United States be paid, including $12.50 to Morris Sigal of 1702 Hillman St., Youngstown, for damage done to the awning in front of his store by a mail truck.
Television will eventually supplant the modern telephone in the American home, but not for many years to come, Dick Schregardus, Cleveland transmission engineer of the Ohio Bell Telephone Co., tells members of the Mahoning Valley Foremen's Association at the Youngstown YMCA.