Today is Saturday, July 26, the 208th day of 2008. There are 158 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, July 26, the 208th day of 2008. There are 158 days left in the year. On this date in 1908, U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issues an order creating a force of special agents that was a forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In 1775, Benjamin Franklin becomes Postmaster-General. In 1788, New York becomes the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1856, playwright Bernard Shaw is born in Dublin, Ireland. In 1945, Winston Churchill resigns as Britain’s prime minister after his Conservatives are soundly defeated by the Labour Party. (Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister.) In 1947, President Truman signs the National Security Act. In 1952, Argentina’s first lady, Eva Peron, dies in Buenos Aires at age 33. In 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.

July 26, 1983: General Motors announces that it earned $1.05 billion in the second quarter of 1983, an 85 percent increase over the $560 million earnings for the same quarter a year earlier. Sales of U.S. cars in July were 38 percent above those of a year earlier.

Ohio state government, pumped up by a 90 percent income tax increase, ends fiscal 1983 with a $46.5 million surplus and a head start in paying its bills.

The Packard Electric Division of General Motors and the International Union of Electrical Workers Local 717 are negotiating an agreement for a low-wage harness assembly plant.

July 26, 1968: General Motors Corp.’s Lordstown plant will be shut down for three weeks for its annual model change.

A gunman robs the North Side offices of the Dollar Savings & Trust Co., forcing teller Margaret Reali to put about $1,000 in a paper bag.

Col. William Longa is named base commander of the U.S. Air Force Reserve Base at Youngstown Municipal Airport, succeeding Col. Clair Hazell, who was transferred to the Continental Air Command.

July 26, 1958: Harry Warner, 76, the oldest of the founding brothers of Warner Bros. Film Studios, who spent his early years in Youngstown, dies at his home in Bel Air, Calif.

John Bush, 22 months old, drowns in a 10-foot deep well in the yard of the family home at 2465 S. Tod Ave. in Warren. He had been playing in the yard with other children when he fell into the well.

The 15th Downtown Sales Day produced mixed reports from merchants, but most agree it was better than a normal Thursday shopping day.

July 26, 1933: Republic Steel Corp.’s whistles announce the 9 a.m. opening of “Opportunity Day” sales in downtown Youngstown. Thousands crowd the stores on the first of four days of special downtown sales.

Youngstown is pictured as not only a great steel city but also as the capital of a great industrial empire with millions of consumers in the book “Youngstown,” published by the Chamber of Commerce and hot off the presses.

Frank Purnell, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., announces a 15 percent increase for salaried employees.

Most Youngstown area bakeries increase the price of a loaf of bread by one cent, bringing a one-pound loaf to eight cents and a pound and a half loaf to 12 cents.