Today is Saturday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2008. There are 326 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2008. There are 326 days left in the year. On this date in 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ends with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

In 1773, the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, is born in Charles City County, Va. In 1825, the House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams president after no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes. In 1861, Jefferson Davis is elected the provisional president of the Confederate States of America. In 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau is established. In 1942, daylight-saving “War Time” goes into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward. In 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charges the State Department is riddled with Communists. In 1964, The Beatles make their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on CBS. In 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 returns to Earth after man’s third landing on the moon. In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov dies at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he is succeeded by Konstantin U. Chernenko. In 2001, a U.S. Navy submarine collides with a Japanese fishing boat off the Hawaiian coast, killing nine men and boys aboard the boat.

February 9, 1983: Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. says he will not obey a court order to sign sheriff’s deeds on property foreclosures. An order signed by common pleas judges instructs the sheriff to sign four deeds for court-ordered foreclosures.

A Girard woman narrowly escapes injury when her car bursts into flames on I-80, not far from the Four-Mile Run overpass. There was speculation that a fire bomb was dropped from the overpass an aimed at a nearby truck, but police could find no evidence of a bomb.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste picks Mary Rita Carney, the wife of a Mahoning County commissioner, to head a statewide council that will coordinate the new federal job-training program aimed at returning thousands of unemployed Ohioans to work.

February 9, 1968: Student Council presidents from five public and two parochial high schools in Youngstown form a new organization and call on the community to refrain from condemning all pupils because of the actions of a few. Percy Squire of East High School is elected chairman of the group, Gary Sharpe of south is vice chairman and Rich Patrick of Ursuline is secretary.

The assault and battery case filed by a North High teacher against at 16-year-old student is continued by Juvenile Court Referee Joseph Bryan.

Struthers City Council calls for a new smoke abatement ordinance after the Smoke Abatement Committee holds a meeting with Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. officials to discuss “black rain” on the city’s North Side. Mayor Stanley E. Davis says the aggressive stance of the committee is hurting industry and could bring the closing of the coke plant.

February 9, 1958: An Ohio examiner report reveals that Mahoning County commissioners spent $63,897 contrary to state code from Jan. 5, 1953, to Dec. 31, 1955.

The Mahoning County Democratic executive committee turns down state Rep. John J. Lynch Jr., one of the party’s best vote-getters and a veteran of five terms in the state Legislature, giving its endorsement to Thomas J. Barrett, a former state representative. Lynch, a veteran of five terms, has little support on the committee because of his independence.

February 9, 1933: A winter storm sweeping through the eastern United States brings the coldest temperatures of the winter to the Mahoning Valley as the Mercury approaches zero. An Alliance man was found frozen to death in a Pennsylvania Railroad car at Crestline. His brother is hospitalized for exposure.

Three South Side women report to police receiving letters from a protection ring demanding payment of $50 to $200.

Industrial engineers in the Mahoning Valley and Youngstown officials discuss giving Lake Milton to the federal government if a plan to build a canal to the Ohio river goes through.