Today is Monday, March 3, the 63rd day of 2008. There are 303 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Monday, March 3, the 63rd day of 2008. There are 303 days left in the year. On this date in 1931, President Hoover signs a measure making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States.

In 1945, the Allies fully secure the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II. In 1969, Apollo 9 blasts off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module. In 1974, nearly 350 people die when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashes shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris. In 1991, in a case that sparks a national outcry, motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. In 1991, 25 people are killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashes while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.

March 3, 1983: Edward W. “Ted” Powers, whose name became synonymous with support of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, dies of a heart attack in Mount Dora, Fla. While he and his wife, Alice, were returning to Youngstown from a southern vacation. Powers, 86, had been a partner in Butler, Wick Co. for 30 years and was an early booster of IBM stock.

March 3, 1968: Campbell Safety-Service Director John Ontko says he will launch an investigation into why city police have allowed “Cal’s Place,” an unlicensed bar to operate in the shadow of the police station. Police Chief John Washko scoffs that Ontko has been around long enough to know about the joint.

Floyd Trevis of 3721 Loveland Road, Youngstown, who has built racing cars that competed in the Indianapolis 500, explains the fine points of racing at a Soap Box Derby clinic at the Uptown Theater.

March 3, 1958: Democrat Adam S. Chesney is elected chairman of the Mahoning County Board of Elections at the board’s biennial organization meeting. He succeeds Harold S. Rickert.

Chaney’s Ron Sabo and Marty Pesut, along with South’s Mel “Pepper” Watkins are unanimous picks of the 11-man selection committee for the 1958 Vindicator All-City scholastic basketball team. Rounding out the starting five are Carl Jones of Rayen and East’s Ron Lane. South’s Bob Douglas was edged out by a single point.

March 3, 1933: Verne J. Wilson, president of the Union National Bank in Youngstown, proposes a 10-year-plan of government guarantees of bank deposits as the solution for the nation’s financial difficulties.

U.S. Sen. Thomas J. Walsh, 73, dies aboard an Atlantic Cost Line train near Wilson, N.C., while en route to Washington, D.C. where he was to be installed as U.S. attorney general. With him at the time of his death was his bride, whom he had married only four days earlier in Havana. Walsh a senator for 20 years, surged to national prominence as the prosecutor in the Teapot Dome oil scandal of 1926.