Today is Sunday, Aug. 3, the 216th day of 2008. There are 150 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, Aug. 3, the 216th day of 2008. There are 150 days left in the year. On this date in 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that takes him to the present-day Americas. In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr goes on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Va., charged with treason. In 1914, Germany declares war on France at the onset of World War I. In 1923, Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, following the death of Warren G. Harding. In 1943, Gen. George S. Patton slaps a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton is later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.) In 1949, the National Basketball Association is formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League. In 1980, closing ceremonies are held in Moscow for the Summer Olympic Games, which had been boycotted by dozens of countries, including the United States. In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers go on strike, despite a warning from President Reagan they would be fired, which they are.

August 3, 1983: Twenty-five men and 11 women from Harvard University on a cross-country bicycle trip pull into the parking lot of Campbell Memorial High School. The bikers have gathered sponsors and are raising more than $70,000 for Oxfam, a hunger relief organization.

Mahoning County commissioners are hopping mad over an estimated $700,000 cut in the county’s share of local government funds distributed by the state. They’re calling for Gov. Richard Celeste to reconvene the Ohio General Assembly to change the distribution formula.

August 3, 1968: Youngstown Sheet Tube Co. joins national steel firms in boosting prices to reflect higher labor costs. President Johnson threatens unspecified action against the companies.

The first 27 tenants of the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority move into the seventh floor of the Hotel Ohio. The housing authority has leased the seventh and eight floors of the hotel to accommodate people displaced by the razing of the Tod Hotel.

Ohio farmers are burning as much as a million bushels of grain on an Urbana farm to protest low grain prices that make it impossible for farmers to growing and sell their crops at a profit.

August 3, 1958: Kenneth C. Herriott, president of Herriott Trucking Co. in East Palestine, sues to prevent the American Legion from holding is annual street fair in N. Market Street, which is part of state Route 170. Some businessmen and merchants say the fair, which has been held for 25 years, should be moved to City Park.

Some 500 delegates attending the 21st annual state convention of the Italian-American World War Veterans at Hotel Ohio in Youngstown will pay tribute to war dead with a memorial service. The convention opened with an address by Atty. Frank J. Battista, Youngstown’s first assistant law director.

August 3, 1933: Nearly 1,000 Youngstown employers have signed National Recovery Act pledges, but Police Prosecutor William B. Spagnola says he’s already investigating 19 cases of employers who are “chiseling” their way around their employment pledges.

Youngstown Mayor Mark Moore advises all city employees who can return to their jobs in the mills or on the railroads to take the work. As summer ends and the park department is shut down, there will be layoffs, the mayor warns..