Today is Wednesday, Sept. 8, the 252nd day of 2004. There are 114 days left in the year. On this

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 8, the 252nd day of 2004. There are 114 days left in the year. On this date in 1900, Galveston, Texas, is struck by a hurricane that kills about 6,000 people.
In 1664, the Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the British, who rename it New York. In 1921, Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., is crowned the first Miss America in Atlantic City, N.J. In 1934, 134 people lose their lives in a fire aboard the liner Morro Castle off the New Jersey coast. In 1935, Sen. Huey P. Long, "The Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, is shot and mortally wounded; he dies two days later. In 1944, Nazi Germany fires the first of its V2 rockets, which are faster and more powerful than the V1, into London during World War II. In 1951, a peace treaty with Japan is signed by 48 other nations in San Francisco. In 1952, the Ernest Hemingway novel "The Old Man and the Sea" is published. In 1974, President Ford grants an unconditional pardon to former President Nixon.
September 8, 1979: Tana Carli, Miss Ohio, wins the talent preliminary of the Miss America pageant playing the accordion. The University of Akron graduate is one of the few accordionists in pageant history.
After a week of no layoffs, the Packard Electric Division of General Motors announces that 1,700 production workers will be furloughed due to decreased demand for its products.
U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio calls for a $6.6 billion program to help poor and middle-class Americans to pay for increased fuel costs this winter and next.
September 8, 1964: Traffic fatalities soar past the 500 mark and 75 people die in boating accidents or drown during the long Labor Day weekend. In Ohio, there were 22 traffic fatalities, one boating and five drownings.
Ohio Congressman Robert Taft visits the Mahoning Valley, making appearances at Idora Park and the Canfield Fair. Taft is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Stephen Young.
September 8, 1954: City Building Inspector Robert L. Findlay condemns the remaining outside walls and spires of St. Columba Cathedral and urges the Diocese of Youngstown to raze them quickly.
At least 19,000 people in Mahoning County will receive increases in government pensions soon as the result of approval by President Eisenhower of bills raising Social Security and Veterans Administration pensions.
The New York Central system is considering plans to build the tallest building in the world on the site of Grand Central Station. The building would cost $100 million and rise 1,600 feet high, 128 feet taller than the Empire State Building.
September 8, 1929: The Youngstown Police Department will be increased by at least 20 patrolmen the first of the year under a proposal by Mayor Joseph Heffernan and Finance Director James E. Jones. The new budget for the fire department had called for 72 additional firemen, but the budget commission reduced that to 22.
Nearly 36,200 students in Youngstown schools, a gain of 2,000, are enrolled for the first day of classes.
Republic Iron & amp; Steel Co. does not intend, at least for the present, to move conduit and cold strip departments in the Elyria plant of Steel & amp; Tube Inc. to Warren, President E.T. McCleary declares after hearing reports that were published in Trumbull County.