Today is Sunday, Aug. 24, the 237th day of 2008. There are 129 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Sunday, Aug. 24, the 237th day of 2008. There are 129 days left in the year. On this date in 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces invade Washington, setting fire to the Capitol (which was still under construction) and the White House, as well as other public buildings.

In A.D. 79, long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash. In 1857, the New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co. fails, sparking the Panic of 1857. In 1932, Amelia Earhart embarks on a 19-hour flight from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., making her the first woman to fly solo, non-stop, from coast to coast. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty comes into force. In 1954, President Eisenhower signs the Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States. In 1970, a bomb planted by anti-war extremists explodes at the University of Wisconsin’s Sterling Hall in Madison, killing 33-year-old researcher Robert Fassnacht. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashes into Florida, causing $30 billion in damage; 43 U.S. deaths are blamed on the storm.

August 24, 1983: Production workers at the Packard Electric Division of General Motors in Warren overwhelming reject a controversial low-wage “final assembly option” that would have established a two-tier pay scale.

Niles Police Chief John Ross mans the phones as he is the only policeman on duty in Niles following an outbreak of “blue flu.” The entire morning shift of six officers and a dispatcher called off sick.

Ohio’s heat wave will mean reduced yields and lower income for Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull farmers and higher prices for consumers, says Paul Good, executive director of the Mahoning -Columbiana Stabilization and Conservation Service.

August 24, 1968: A 51-year-old Mercer area woman is killed when the fork lift on a farm tractor strikes the windshield and tears a section of roof off a Volkswagen on a country road five miles north of Mercer. Dead is Eva Belle Spieker of Jefferson Township.

The Rev. R. Harry Bolen is appointed minister of the Wickliffe Christian Church.

A 77-year-old South Side widow is criminally assaulted by an armed man wearing a ski mask who forced his way into her home.

August 24, 1958: Youngstown Postmaster John Doyle proposes buying a lot to the west of the downtown Post Office and adding a wing and a floor to the present building on Front Street at Market Street.

Lt. Col. O.R. Hummel, professor of military science at Youngstown University, swears in seven of eight graduates of the Reserve Officers Training Corps as 2nd lieutenants in the U.S. Army.

An estimated 15,600 students will attend the 29 Catholic schools in Mahoning County, an increase of 10 percent. The first Catholic school in Poland, Holy Family Elementary School, opens with an enrollment of 350.

August 24, 1933: Edgar “Jit” Moran is arrested by Mahoning County deputies at the Embassy Club in Market Street after being secretly indicted by an Summit County grand jury on charges of bribing an Akron detective. Mayor Mark Moore wants to know why deputies were able to find Moran before city police officers could.

Clarence Darrow, the famous Chicago criminal lawyer, visits his hometown of Kinsman and speaks to a crowd of 6,000 at the 50th annual Kinsman fair. He says he voted for President Roosevelt, but isn’t convinced that the National Recovery Act is going to work.