Today is Friday, July 18, the 200th day of 2008. There are 166 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Friday, July 18, the 200th day of 2008. There are 166 days left in the year. On this date in 1947, President Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act, which places the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

In A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome begins. In 1792, American naval hero John Paul Jones dies in Paris at age 45. In 1918, during World War I, American and French forces launch a counteroffensive against the Germans during the Second Battle of the Marne. In 1932, the United States and Canada sign a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War begins. In 1940, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominates President Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office. In 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., plunges off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard; passenger Mary Jo Kopechne dies. In 1984, a gunman opens fire at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people before being shot dead by police. In 1984, Walter F. Mondale wins the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco. In 1988, Texas Treasurer Ann Richards delivers the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, skewering presumed Republican nominee George H.W. Bush as having been “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

July 18, 1983: A black granite monument honoring Medal of Honor winner Ralph Dias, who was killed assaulting a machine gun bunker in Vietnam, is unveiled at his grave in Leetonia’s Oakdale Cemetery.

A band of 75 migrant farm workers pass through Warren on the 10th day of their “March for Justice” from Toledo to Campbell Soup company’s Camden, N.J., headquarters.

The Reagan administration is drawing fire for its latest plan to give banks and savings and loan associations additional powers for securities, insurance and real estate service.

July 18, 1968: More than 3,000 Youngstown district signatures are obtained in the early days of an effort to put the name of former Gov. George Wallace of Alabama on the Ohio ballot as a presidential candidate.

Henry Williams, director of the East Side Citizens Center since 1966, the first of the five center directors to be named in Youngstown’s anti-poverty program, resigns to become territorial representative for Bristol-Meyers in a three-state area.

Vandals climb a fence to get into Borts Pool and throw broken glass, park benches, trash cans and chemicals in the water. The pool will be closed till 1 p.m. for cleaning.

July 18, 1958: Police Lt. Dan Maggianetti, on leave of absence since January when he became safety-service director in East Liverpool, resigns his Youngstown position effective July 22.

Fifth Ward Councilman Ray T. Davis will seek special assessments against property owners in the Kirkmere area to enclose the drainage ditch running through the district and eliminate a major source of flooding,

Youngstown City Council passes unanimously a resolution opposing the proposed right-to-work amendment to the state constitution.

July 18, 1933: More than 2,500 employees of 200 tailor and dry cleaning shops throughout the Mahoning Valley receive a 15 percent wage increase after employers meet at the Ward Bakery Auditorium.

Six people are treated in riverside Hospital in Warren for injuries suffered when a Cleveland-to-New York bus overturned on Cleveland--Warren Road in Southington.

Youngstown teachers, who are owed seven weeks’ backpay from the last school year, are getting two weeks of that pay immediately and will receive the other five weeks by Aug. 15, Supt. George E. Roudebush says.