Today is Tuesday, Aug. 19, the 232nd day of 2008. There are 134 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 19, the 232nd day of 2008. There are 134 days left in the year. On this date in 1812, the USS Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerriere off Nova Scotia during the War of 1812.

In 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat arrives in Albany, two days after leaving New York. In 1918, “Yip! Yip! Yaphank,” a musical revue by Irving Berlin featuring Army recruits from Camp Upton in Yaphank, N.Y., opens on Broadway. In 1929, the radio comedy program “Amos ’n’ Andy,” starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, makes its debut on the NBC Blue Network. In 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approves the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler. In 1942, during World War II, about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launch a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering more than 50 percent casualties. In 1955, severe flooding in the northeastern U.S. claims some 200 lives. In 1960, a tribunal in Moscow convicts American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage. In 1976, President Ford wins the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Kansas City, Mo. In 1982, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the second woman to be launched into space. In 1991, Soviet hard-liners announce to a shocked world that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has been removed from power. (The coup collapses two days later.)

August 19, 1983: U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams throws his support behind a low-wage jobs agreement that goes before production workers at General Motors’ Packard Electric Division plants.

A reserve Mahoning County deputy sheriff shoots and wounds a 17-year-old Youngstown boy during an alleged burglary attempt at the Bargain Port department store in McCartney Road.

Local governments in the four-county area may be receiving more money for job-creating programs because of a special designation given by the U.S. Economic Development Administration to the Lake-to-River Corridor.

August 19, 1968: Dr. Milton Katz, 44, of Los Angeles, formerly of Farrell, Pa., is among three people killed when their light plane crashed while approaching the Monterey Peninsula airport in northern California. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Katz moved from Farrell to Boardman in 1962.

Bud J. Fares of Lake Milton defeats 76 contestants from around the world who were competing for outstanding toastmaster at the Toastmasters International convention in Miami. He is the first Ohioan to win the honor.

General Motors develops a new ripper-shredder that extracts nonferrous metals and will turn junk cars into usable scrap for the steel industry.

August 19, 1958: The new Lake Erie-to-Ohio River highway will closely parallel Route 46 from Ashtabula to Canfield, State Highway Director Charles Nobel announces.

The Army engineers at Pittsburgh await a report by a staff member on whether to recommend federal aid to straighten out and dredge parts of Crab Creek for flood control.

Dr. Ralph W. Beede, the older brother of Dike Beede, Youngstown University football coach, and a physician at South Side hospital, shoots himself outside his parked car in Gibson Road. He had been in ill health.

Bob Katula of Campbell and Walt Furin of Boardman win the Youngstown District Amateur Golf Association’s first $1,000 Amateur Best Ball Tournament at Mill Creek Park.

August 19, 1933: For the third consecutive year, the Home Savings Loan Cup, emblematic of leadership in the seedling class at the annual Mahoning Gladiolus Society Flower Show, is awarded to H.O. Evans of Bedford, Ohio.

Paul B. Davies, 37, is elected general secretary of the Local YMCA. He has been with the Y since 1919, when he was named director of Camp Fitch, the little makeshift summer camp on the Little Beaver River.

Youngstown police are looking for a con artist who posed as a representative of the Hoover Co. and tricked five housewives into giving him their Hoover sweepers for inspection by the company.