Today is Tuesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2004. There are 318 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2004. There are 318 days left in the year. On this date in1904, Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" is poorly received at its world premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy. (Puccini revises his work, which goes on to enjoy great success.)
In 1801, the House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr becomes vice president. In 1817, a street in Baltimore becomes the first to be lighted with gas from America's first gas company. In 1865, Columbia, S.C., burns as the Confederates evacuate and Union forces move in. (It's not known which side set the blaze.) In 1897, the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, is founded in Washington. In 1947, the Voice of America begins broadcasting to the Soviet Union. In 1964, the Supreme Court rules that congressional districts within each state have to be roughly equal in population.
February 17, 1979: Machinegun-toting revolutionary police stand guard as 882 weary Americans are herded onto three jets at Tehran's airport and shuttled to safety in the U.S. government's four-day emergency airlift from Iran.
Michael Patrick Bilon is only 34 inches tall, but he has little difficulty running the radio room at the Mahoning County Sheriff's office. Bilon, a 1965 graduate of Ursuline High School and 1972 graduate of Youngstown State University, is believed to be the smallest dispatcher in the country.
The greatest danger that educators must guard against is permitting learning to become so structured and restrictive that students lose their individuality, says Dr. Donald Renwand, superintendent of Niles schools.
February 17, 1964: Efthemios George, 56, a former Youngstown area resident, is killed with a machete while tending a friend's sheep outside his native village of Aylos Thedorous on the island of Cyprus. He had returned to his Greek-Turkish village about two years before and was planning on returning to the United States.
Robert E. Vaughan, assistant to the undersecretary of the Interior and former Youngstown area resident, is named liaison agent in transferring to the Navy at Guantanamo Bay a million-gallons-per-day sea water desalting plant at San Diego.
Youngstown police intelligence and security squad officers make three raids on bolita outlets, arresting five men and a woman who were running the Puerto Rican lottery in Youngstown. One of the men, the head of the bank, had 24 runners serving 300 to 400 players and taking in about $5,000 a week on the lottery, which is illegal in Ohio.
February 17, 1954: A fine of $500 and $113 in court costs are levied against Joseph Naples, 21, following a jury verdict of guilty on bug charges. He is the brother of S. Joseph "Sandy" Naples, Youngstown rackets boss.
Youngstown planning director Israel Stollman will present a plan for streamlining Central Square together with cost estimates to a representative of the State Highway Department.
Fourteen of the 30 past presidents of the Columbiana Rotary Club are present for a past-presidents ceremony. Seven of the past presidents are deceased.
Dr. Robert W. Wilkins of Boston, vice president of the American Heart Association, tells a group of Youngstown district physicians at the Elks Club that relief for persons with high blood pressure through the use of new drugs is in progress.
February 17, 1929: The steel industry of the Mahoning Valley is on the threshold of important developments in production methods and new mills. Among the developments, both Republic Iron & amp; Steel Co. and Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co. are conducting experiments on electrically welded pipe.
A new Youngstown concern, the Honey Candy Co. of America, will occupy a portion of the Burt building in W. Federal Street, says Paul H. Bolton, a prominent Youngstown man and vice president of the new company.
Two Youngstown pilots, C. O. Bell and W. Edgar Leedy Jr., suggest the city abandon Bond Street north of Thorn Hill Avenue and add 500 feet to the short east-west runway at Lansdowne Field by using six acres of city-owned land.