Today is Tuesday, May 4, the 125th day of 2004. There are 241 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Tuesday, May 4, the 125th day of 2004. There are 241 days left in the year. On this date in 1904, the United States begins building the Panama Canal.
In 1776, Rhode Island declares its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence is adopted. In 1932, mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, enters the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. In 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, begins during World War II. In 1945, during World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agree to surrender. In 1961, a group of Freedom Riders leaves Washington for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals. In 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opens fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. In 1980, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia, dies three days before his 88th birthday.
May 4, 1979: Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher, champion of free enterprise and curbs on union power, sweeps Britain's general election, making her Europe's first woman prime minister.
The Federal Aviation Administration informs the city that it faces the loss of all federal funds at Youngstown Municipal Airport for refusing to allow private aircraft owners the right to refuel their planes.
The New Castle Area Education Association retains its bargaining authority in the New Castle Area School District with a 194-144 ballot box victory over the American Federation of Teachers.
ICX Aviation Inc. says it is still in the running to build a Youngstown aircraft plant, despite a hang up in negotiations with a Soviet export company to buy the design and tooling for the Soviet-designed YAK-40 jet transport.
May 4, 1964: A cut brake line causes an auto accident in which Robert Collingwood, 76, and his wife, Daisy, 70, of E. Midlothian Boulevard, are injured. Their car plunged out of control down Bridge Street in Struthers and crashed over a 45-foot embankment onto the P & amp;LE Railroad tracks.
The Supreme Court agrees to review a decision by a U.S. Court of Appeal that conscientious objectors need not believe in a supreme being to be exempted from military service.
Bing Crosby has been signed to do a weekly television show for ABC-TV in which he will play an architectural engineer with a devoted wife and two precocious daughters. Beverly Garland will play his wife; Cari Faylen and Diane Sherry will play the daughters.
May 4, 1954: More than 100 truck drivers and warehousemen strike against Youngstown independent wholesale grocers in a dispute over wage demands.
Mahoning County sheriff's deputies avert a near-riot by locking up 12 prisoners who turned on water faucets in an attempt to flood the third floor of the county jail in a protest over disciplinary action taken against another inmate.
Benjamin J. Fairless will step down in 1955 as chairman of the United States Steel Corp., the world's greatest steelmaking enterprise, stockholders are told at their annual meeting.
Minimum salaries for school teachers in Youngstown are increased $250, to $3,350 per year.
May 4, 1929: George L. Fordyce, owner of the property at the corner of Federal and Phelps streets that is occupied by the George L. Fordyce Co., leases the site to the Schulte-United Inc. for 99 years. The company, which operates a chain of stores selling items from 5 cents to $1, will erect a $200,000 modern store building of 21/2 floors.
Three children burn to death and their mother and a small daughter are painfully burned when fire destroys the home of William Stevens, 1230 Cascade St., New Castle. Dead are Dorothy and Billy Sullivan, both 14, and Virginia, 9. Injured were Mrs. Stevens, 39, and Eleanora, 4.
A road improvement fund of $61,000 that will be give to Mahoning County from the state gasoline tax will be a "Godsend," says county surveyor George Montgomery.
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