Today is Saturday, April 26, the 117th day of 2008. There are 249 days left in the year. On this

Today is Saturday, April 26, the 117th day of 2008. There are 249 days left in the year. On this date in 1607, English colonists go ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Va., on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. (They later settle at Jamestown.)

In 1785, American naturalist and artist John James Audubon is born in present-day Haiti. In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, is surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed. In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raid the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, is arrested. In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania. In 1968, the United States explodes beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.”

April 26, 1983: Randy Fellows, 18, of Niles is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the shooting death of Niles Patrolman John Utlak. He will be eligible for parole in 30 years.

John J. Cafaro, executive vice president of the Cafaro Co., receives the City of Hope Spirit of Life Award. The City of Hope is a national medical center and research institute in Duarte, Calif.

Two Sewickley, Pa., brothers apparently drown when their rented boat capsized in the white-capped waters of Lake Evans in Springfield Township.

April 26, 1968: Dr. George Schoen-hard, supervisor of child accounting and psychological services for Youngstown city schools, says $250,000 is needed to meet problems of attendance, discipline and under achievement.

Howard Landis Bevis, retired Ohio State University president and a former justice on the Ohio Supreme Court, dies. He guided the university from 1940 to 1956, which included the post-war years during which OSU grew from 13,000 enrollment to more than 30,000.

April 26, 1958: The Mercer County prosecutor charges Farrell Police Chief Albert Timparo with establishing a gambling game at a police-sponsored stag party in the city.

Ohio Highway Department chief Charles M. Noble warns that disciplinary action will be taken against any employees selling tickets for political functions on Highway Department time. The order followed reports that workers were being pressured to buy $10 tickets for Republican rallies in support of Gov. C. William O’Neill.

April 26, 1933: Youngstown Mayor Mark Moore orders the closing of a “walkathon” at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 93, saying it is unsanitary and unsafe. Eight couples and two solo contestants remain in the marathon, which has been going on for 50 days and was to run through May 31. It has been attracting crowds of spectators.

Poland Township officials oppose efforts by the village of Lowellville to annex parts of the township. “Lowellville spends more money for operation than the city of Campbell, which is considered the last word in municipal extravagance,” says W. L. Countryman, counsel for the township and Poland Board of Education.

A New Castle man is sentenced to 125 days in jail after three gasoline station operators say he scammed them by driving off with a promise to return to pay for his fill-up. The man claimed that he left his wallet in his other pair of pants.