Today is Monday, Aug. 4, the 217th day of 2008. There are 149 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Monday, Aug. 4, the 217th day of 2008. There are 149 days left in the year. On this date in 1944, Nazi police raid the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrest eight people, including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary becomes a famous account of the Holocaust. (Anne dies at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp some seven months later.)

In 1735, a jury acquits John Peter Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal of seditious libel. In 1790, the Coast Guard has its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service. In 1792, English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is born at Field Place near Horsham, England. In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden are axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. Lizzie Borden, Andrew’s daughter from a previous marriage, is accused of the killings, but acquitted at trial. In 1916, the United States reaches agreement with Denmark to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million. In 1964, the bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi. In 1977, President Carter signs a measure establishing the Department of Energy. In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission votes to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.

August 4, 1983: The Standard Oil Co. of Ohio announces a $40,000 challenge grant to the Youngstown Foundation for emergency food and shelter services in the Mahoning Valley.

August 4, 1968: Youngstown State University files a petition with the Federal Communications Commission requesting that commercial station 45 be retained in Youngstown and assigned to YSU as the community’s educational television channel.

A family business started more than 60 years ago from a peddler’s wagon is embarking on a $2 million building project as the grandsons of Morris Tamarkin expand the company that bears his name. Tamarkin supplies grocers in a 50-mile radius of Youngstown.

August 4, 1958: U.S. Space Director Roy W. Johnson cautions that America’s first moon rocket may have no better than a one in 10 chance of landing successfully.

August 4, 1933: Youngstown Finance Director Hugh D. Hindman deplores the tardy collection of second half taxes, noting that the city is two months behind on its payroll because of delinquent tax payments.

As traffic deaths in the Youngstown area mount to nine in four days, city speed officers are increasing their patrols. The latest victim was Jimmy Gribbon, 4, who was killed while trying to hop a ride on a candy truck near his Belden Avenue home.