Today is Thursday, May 13th, the 134th day of 2004. There are 232 days left in the year. On this

Today is Thursday, May 13th, the 134th day of 2004. There are 232 days left in the year. On this date in 1981, Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
In 1842, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, who collaborated with Sir William Gilbert in writing 14 comic operas, is born in London. In 1917, three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, report seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. In 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, are introduced. (On some of the stamps, the airplane is printed upside-down, making them collector's items.) In 1940, in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill tells the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." In 1954, President Eisenhower signs into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act. In 1954, the musical play "The Pajama Game" opens on Broadway. In 1958, Vice President Nixon's limousine is battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
May 13, 1979: Automobile buyers, worried about the developing gasoline crunch, are switching to the new crop of fuel-miser small cars, which is providing job security for more than 11,000 employees at the General Motors Corp. Lordstown complex.
A brief but fierce thunderstorm, packing high winds, strikes Greater Youngstown, leaving behind a trail of broken windows, damaged roofs, toppled trees and disrupted electrical service.
More than half of Youngstown's disadvantaged children who need special help with reading or math never see a remedial teacher because the city school system is strapped for funds.
May 13, 1964: The Ohio Supreme Court dismisses a suit challenging the legality of Ohio's $250 million bond issue approved by voters in November for capital improvements, largely for schools.
Heavy thunderstorms hit the Youngstown district, causing some scattered flooding in streets and lawns. It became so dark that street lights were turned on.
The swanky casinos in the once-glittering resort of Hot Springs, Ark., are silent, closed by order of Gov. Orval E. Faubus, but a vigorous campaign is under way to make Arkansas the second state in the Union with legal casino gambling.
May 13, 1954: Municipal Judge Frank R. Franko dismisses charges against Joseph "Sandy" Naples, notorious racketeer and reputed king of local numbers operations, after Police Prosecutors Irwin Kretzer and Don L. Hanni Jr. fail to produce their lead witness, James Naples, the brother of the defendant. James Naples is reported to be vacationing in Florida and Cuba.
A statewide inspection of wells in coal mine areas will be launched in Liberty Township, where an elderly Church Hill man dies April 26 of fumes from a well sunk into an old mine. Warning letters had already been sent home with Liberty school children, warning parents to check their homes for black damp (carbon monoxide).
Apparent low bidder for construction of a toll plaza on the Ohio Turnpike at Route 7 is C.C. Kaiser & amp; Sons of Canfield, at $189,006.
May 13, 1929: While saying that Lansdowne Field is the best of the present air fields in Youngstown, W.J. Mackenzie, government airport specialist, suggests that the city study possible airport sites west of the city, near Austintown, for construction of a good airport.
Ruth Marie Livermore, 22-year-old former schoolteacher now serving a life sentence in the Marysville Reformatory on he plea of guilty to a charge of burglary, will be given a jury trial as a result of the refusal of Judge David G. Jenkins to nolle the indictment against her.
Youngstown police investigate the mysterious shooting of Donald Burwinkel, 9, at a public playground where he was watching a baseball game. He is in critical condition.