Today is Thursday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2007. There are 319 days left in the year. On this date in 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blows up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260

Today is Thursday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2007. There are 319 days left in the year. On this date in 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blows up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain.
In 1879, President Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court. In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escapes an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara is executed more than four weeks later, on March 20. In 1942, the British colony Singapore surrenders to the Japanese during World War II. In 1961, 73 people, including an 18-member U.S. figure skating team en route to Czechoslovakia, are killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. In 1965, Canada's new maple-leaf flag is unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa. In 1986, the Philippines National Assembly proclaims Ferdinand E. Marcos president for another six years, following an election marked by allegations of fraud. (Marcos ends up being ousted from power.) In 1989, the Soviet Union announces that the last of its troops have left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention.
February 15, 1982: United Auto Workers President Douglas Frazier says his union's tentative agreement with Ford Motor Co. marks a new direction in collective bargaining that will help stem the rising tide of unemployment in the auto industry. The pact calls for Ford workers to forgo wage and cost-of-living increases in return for limited job security.
Advertisement: Direct from New York to the stage of Powers Auditorium in Youngstown, "A Chorus Line" and "The best little whorehouse in Texas." Both shows, 29.95.
Bobby Allison wins the Daytona 500. Pre-race favorites Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip finish 27th and 20th, respectively.
February 15, 1967: Donald B. McKay, president and chairman of the board of Home Savings & amp; Loan Association, will be campaign chairman of the United Appeal campaign.
Stephen Kerpsack, 64, collapses and dies in City Hall chambers after walking up six flights of stairs to attend a zone change hearing. Elevators in City Hall are out of order after a Feb. 1 fire.
The Defense Department cancels 13,000 subscriptions to the Presbyterian Sunday school magazine that is used in Sunday school classes on military bases because a poem on napalm written by a 12 year old girl was deemed "embarrassing" given use of the chemical in Vietnam.
February 15, 1957: Youngstown's traffic meters are getting so old that there are constant complaints about "unjustified tickets" and must be replaced, says Traffic Coordinator John F. Pletnik. Most of the machines are 20 years old, twice their life expectancy.
Russian-born novelist Nila Magidoff says "democracy depends upon all the American people," in an address to the Youngstown-Warren branch of the Pittsburgh Dairy Council at Hotel Pick-Ohio.
M.A. York, traffic manager of the E.W. Bliss Co. of Salem, is elected president of the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys Traffic Association.
February 15, 1932: Jack Roper, Campbell councilman-at-large, demands that the city begin reducing its operating expenses in an attempt to keep the city from bankruptcy.
President Hoover selects Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo of New York as the successor to Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes on the Supreme Court of the United States.
A.W. Kutsche & amp; Co. of Detroit begins work on construction of Youngstown's new 361,000 downtown post office, which will provide work for several months for scores of men, mostly laid-off employees of local companies.
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