Today is Friday, June 4, the 156th day of 2004. There are 210 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, June 4, the 156th day of 2004. There are 210 days left in the year. On this date in 1942, the Battle of Midway begins during World War II. In 1892, the Sierra Club is incorporated in San Francisco. In 1896, Henry Ford makes a successful pre-dawn test run of his horseless carriage, called a "quadricycle," through the streets of Detroit. In 1940, the Allied military evacuation from Dunkirk, France, ends. In 1944, the U.S. Fifth Army begins liberating Rome during World War II. In 1947, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approves the Taft-Hartley Act. In 1954, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc sign treaties in Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
In 1989, hundreds, possibly thousands of people die as Chinese army troops storm Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement. In 1994, President Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major pay tribute to the lost airmen of World War II at the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England. In 2003, Martha Stewart steps down as head of her media empire, hours after federal prosecutors in New York charged her with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, securities fraud and lying to investigators. (Stewart was convicted last March of lying about why she'd sold her shares of ImClone Systems stock in 2001, just before the stock price plunged.)
June 4, 1979: Sixty-eight workers have been laid off and more are expected to follow as the Johnson Bronze Co. moves into its planned phase-out of two manufacturing production lines in New Castle, Pa.
History is made in Mahoning County court as television and still cameras are allowed to record a trial in progress for the first time. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in April that cameras would be permitted in court on a one-year trial. The lawyer for Clyde Neely, being tried on a murder charge, objected to the presence of the cameras.
East Palestine's Jerry McGee says his one-stroke victory in the Kemper Open at Charlotte, N.C.., was "the best I've ever handled adversity." McGee picked up a check for $63,000 in his victory over Jerry Pate.
June 4, 1964: Suzi Shwartz of Youngstown falls in the 11th round of the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. on the word avocet, a storklike bird. She was the 53rd speller eliminated, from a field of 69.
Some 2,400 young fans, most of them girls, shriek through virtually the entire performance of the Dave Clark Five at Stambaugh Auditorium. Earlier, the British rock group needed an escort of five policemen to work their way through a crowd at the Hotel Pick-Ohio to a waiting car to get to the auditorium.
June 4, 1954: Mrs. Clarence J. Goldthorpe of 4317 Chester Drive, active club woman, is elected treasurer of the General Federation of Women's Clubs at the annual convention in Denver.
Struthers Mayor Harold L. Milligan and Robert C. Boylan, safety service director, notify Police Chief G. Woodrow Sicafuse and the city's three police captains that they will be held responsible for keeping commercialized gambling out of the city.
Trumbull County commissioners agree by a 2-1 vote to purchase 300 vertical-type voting machines from the Shoup Voting Machine Co. of Philadelphia on a bid of $569,271.
June 4, 1929: Within 25 years, American women will either have more than 50 percent membership in the House of Representatives, or close to it, Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, Republican congresswoman from Illinois predicts.
Youngstown schools will open Sept. 9 instead of Sept. 4 because it will be more convenient and will save the district money, the superintendent says.
Presenting one of their strongest casts of the season, the Youngstown Players present their closing show of the season, "The Youngest, " a three-act comedy by Philip Barry, at the Playhouse on Arlington Street.