Today is Saturday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2007. There are 317 days left in the year. On this date in 1801, the House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron

Today is Saturday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2007. There are 317 days left in the year. On this date in 1801, the House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr becomes vice president.
In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship U.S.S. Housatonic is rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, S.C., by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine H.L. Hunley, which also sinks. In 1865, Columbia, S.C., burns as the Confederates evacuate and Union forces move in. (It's not clear which side set the blaze.) In 1897, the forerunner of the National P.T.A, the National Congress of Mothers, convenes its first meeting, in Washington.
February 17, 1982: Salem Police Chief John Sommers is conducting a traffic study to determine if two streets in the vicinity of the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services and the Post Office should be changed to one-way thoroughfares.
State Rep. Robert Nader announces that he will run for Trumbull County Common Pleas Court after Judge David Griffith says he will not seek re-election.
A group of young Irishmen walking from San Francisco to New York to raise money to feed children in Third World countries stop in Youngstown. The group, accompanied by a double-decker bus, has raised about 100,000.
February 17, 1967: A man under indictment for a brutal murder and another suspected in several robberies, escape from Trumbull County's new "model" jail, using a three-foot section of angle iron to pry their way out of a maximum security cell. They are believed to have fled in a 1958 Buick Roadmaster stolen from the nearby Dana Hotel garage.
The Mill Creek Park citizens committee meeting at St. Christine Church passes a resolution asking that legal action be taken against the dumping of raw sewage into the waterways and lakes of the park.
A cargo-loaded single-engined Cessna 182 crashes while taking off from Youngstown Municipal Airport, killing the pilot, Paul Bennett, 55, and a passenger, George Lotza, 42, both of Illinois.
February 17, 1957: Four of five glass contractors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties sign a wage agreement with the glaziers union, ending a seven-week strike.
Meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, leaders of the Democratic Party pay tribute to congressman Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown as "one of the truly great figures in America."
The Youngstown Park and Recreation Commission makes sweeping changes in the operation of Lake Milton to improve the popular summer resort. Eyesores will be razed, cottage rentals increased and police patrols increased.
February 17, 1932: Federal agents raid the Sachsenheim (Saxon Home) on Franklin Avenue in Youngstown, seizing a large quantity of beer and wine. John Wellman, the alleged bartender, is arrested.
Only four of Mahoning County's 19 school districts have paid their teachers and other employees up to date. Those districts are Campbell, Struthers, North Jackson and Lowellville.
Youngstown Councilman Jack Geitch, chairman of council's utilities committee, says he hasn't decided whether reporters will be allowed to attend a meeting between the committee and Ohio Edison Co. officials to discuss electricity rates in the city.