Today is Monday, July 14, the 196th day of 2008. There are 170 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Monday, July 14, the 196th day of 2008. There are 170 days left in the year. On this date in 1789, during the French Revolution, citizens of Paris storm the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

In 1798, Congress passes the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry relays to Japanese officials a letter from President Fillmore, requesting trade relations. (Fillmore’s term of office had already expired by the time the letter was delivered.) In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, N.M. In 1908, the short film “The Adventures of Dollie,” the first movie directed by D.W. Griffith, opens in New York. In 1913, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., the 38th president of the United States, is born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Neb. In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, are outlawed. In 1958, the army of Iraq overthrows the monarchy. In 1966, eight student nurses are murdered by Richard Speck in a Chicago dormitory. In 2003, President Bush, facing questions about the invasion of Iraq, says the United States is working overtime to prove Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction.

July 14, 1983: Cuts made in the Pennsylvania budget mean local schools can expect reductions in state subsidies of as high as 21 percent, school officials are warned.

The Butler Institute of American Art, the Symphony Society and the The Playhouse are among the Youngstown area cultural institutions that will receive a share of more than $3.5 million in tax-supported grants from the Ohio Arts Council for the coming year.

July 14, 1968: Dr. Robert Findley of Washington, D.C., cofounder of International Students Inc., tells 175 people at a meeting of the Youngstown Chapter of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship, that communism is being spread by some foreign students at American colleges and universities. “At least 90 percent of American college students today are left of center in various degrees,” he says.

July 14, 1958: Robert F. Kennedy, counsel to the Senate Rackets Committee, says the underworld is milking at least $1 billion a year out of labor management rackets.

The two-cent postcard will be replaced Aug. 1 by the three-cent card only six years after the penny postcard became obsolete.

George S. Bishop, chairman of the grounds and building committee of the Fairgrounds Board, says many of the older buildings on the fairgrounds are fire hazards and the closest fire hydrant is more than 250 feet away. During the fair, a fire truck and crew will be on duty around the clock at the barns.

July 14, 1933: Youngstown City Council authorizes Utilities Engineer E.E. Ingersoll to negotiate with the Youngstown Municipal Railway Co. for abandonment of the Mosier car line and the institution of bus service.