Today is Friday, Aug. 1, the 214th day of 2008. There are 152 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, Aug. 1, the 214th day of 2008. There are 152 days left in the year. On this date in 1907, the U.S. Air Force has its beginnings as the U.S. Army Signal Corps establishes an aeronautical division.

In 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War erupts, the result of a dispute over control of Korea; Japan’s army routs the Chinese. In 1933, the National Recovery Administration’s “Blue Eagle” symbol begins to appear in store windows and on packages to show support for the National Industrial Recovery Act. In 1936, the Olympic games open in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler. In 1944, an uprising breaks out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation, a revolt that lasts two months before collapsing. In 1946, President Truman signs the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Sen. William J. Fulbright. In 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, goes on a shooting rampage at the University of Texas in Austin, killing 14 people. Whitman, who had also murdered his wife and mother hours earlier, is gunned down by police. In 1988, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh begins broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program.

August 1, 1983: Niles Safety Service Director Gene Sprecacenere resigns his position with the city effective immediately to take a job with Syro Steel Co. of Girard.

Members of Local 641 of the Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters strike the ITT Grinnell Corp. in Warren in a disagreement over pension provisions in the company’s final contract offer.

Emily Herchik wins Class A honors in the Women’s Youngstown District Golf Association’s point play at Riverview course near Braceville in Trumbull County. Doreen Hamady is second.

August 1, 1968: Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Elwyn V. Jenkins rules that good Samaritan Amelia Picciochi can continue to operate her nursing home at 97 Wick Oval, where she takes care of six to nine elderly residents. Jenkins blocked an attempt by the state Board of Health to close the home.

The Canfield Fair Board moves its offices from 12 W. Main St. to the fairgrounds. Carol Dickson is appointed a full-time secretary to assist Grace Williams, executive secretary of the fair.

Chan Cochran, a former Vindicator reporter who is a combat correspondent for the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam, tells the Youngstown Rotary Club that the situation in Vietnam “demands that Americans tackle problems the way they are rather than the way they would like them to be.”

August 1, 1958: Leetonia Mayor Ralph Kennedy estimates damage at $250,000 as the rain-swollen Cherry Valley Run Fork of Little Beaver Creek overflows its banks in the village. Volunteers worked feverishly to sandbag the Copeland Lake dam to prevent a breach that could have wiped out the village.

Avery C. Adams, former Youngstown steel man, will succeed Admiral Ben Moreell as chairman of the board of the huge Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.

The Mahoning County Bar Association is considering a formal request to Ohio Atty. Gen. William Saxbe to take action to unseat Frank R. Franko from the Youngstown Municipal Court bench.

August 1, 1933: Gunfire and tear gas send 10 men to hospitals in the strike zone of southwestern Pennsylvania, where the Youngstown Sheet Tube Co. and Republic Steel Corp. mines remain closed.

Registration closes for The Vindicator-Yankee Lake beauty pageant, a preliminary to the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. Thirty-five young women will compete.

A sign of returning prosperity is seen in the increased sale of new autos in Mahoning County. During the first seven months of the year, there were 1,843 bills of sale registered, compared to $1,008 for the same months a year earlier.