Today is Friday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2008. There are 334 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2008. There are 334 days left in the year. On this date in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members: Commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; Michael Anderson; Kalpana Chawla; David Brown; Laurel Clark; and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space.

In 1946, Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie is chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations. In 1958, the United Arab Republic, a union of Egypt and Syria, is established. (The union ends in 1961.) In 1960, four black college students begin a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they had been refused service. In 1968, during the Vietnam War, South Vietnam’s police chief executes a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head in a scene captured by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams and NBC News. In 1968, Richard M. Nixon announces his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini receives a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ends nearly 15 years of exile. In 1991, 34 people are killed when a USAir jetliner crashes atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport. In 1998, in a round of Sunday talk show appearances, Monica Lewinsky’s attorney, William Ginsburg, predicts that the controversy over whether the former White House intern had had an affair with President Bill Clinton would “go away” and that the president would survive unscathed.

February 1, 1983: Youngstown teachers vote 367 to 183 to strike unless the Board of Education sweetens its offer for a new contract.

Most Ohio independent truckers appear to have parked their rigs as part of a nationwide strike that that has already been marked by scatted violence in the Youngstown district.

High unemployment in Mahoning County, coupled with cuts in federal assistance to free health clinics, has led to increases in malnutrition and child abuse, Helen Mager, nursing director for the Mahoning County Health Department, tells a congressional hearing in Washington.

February 1, 1968: Three well-dressed, armed men bind and gag an elderly Boardman couple, Mr. and Mrs. Nestor A. Raptou, and terrorize them for an hour and a half before escaping with $1,400 in cash and about $7,000 in jewelry.

Youngstown police continue their hunt for a 16-year-old North High student who struck and injured three adults and another youth and fled after brandishing a switchblade knife at the school.

Legislation to create two assistant police chief positions that would be paid $9,500 a year is bottled up in Councilman Herman “Pete” Starks’ finance committee.

February 1, 1958: R. Robert J. Panaro, a Youngstown Hospital Association resident physician, scores the highest grade among 66 candidates who passed the Ohio State Medical Board examinations.

Judge John W. Ford is elected a deputy to attend the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Youngstown and William J. Hitchcock Jr. is named to a standing committee of the diocese.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan tells the Civil Aeronautics Board it needs to improve airline service at the Youngstown Municipal Airport to take care of the area’s growing travel needs.

February 1, 1933: The operations of two counterfeiting rings that have circulated bogus coins and paper currency in the Youngstown district are believed to have been checked by the arrests of three men in Pittsburgh and three in Warren.

The Erie Railroad makes a $46,000 payment to the city, clearing the way for purchase of property from First Christian Church and for work to begin on the downtown grade crossing project.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 farmers, villagers and city dwellers gather weekly at the Canfield Fairgrounds for a farmers market and auction.