Today is Thursday, Sept. 4, the 248th day of 2008. There are 118 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, Sept. 4, the 248th day of 2008. There are 118 days left in the year. On this date in 1888, George Eastman receives a patent for his roll-film box camera, and registered his trademark: “Kodak.”

In 1893, English author Beatrix Potter first tells the story of Peter Rabbit in the form of a “picture letter” to Noel Moore, the son of Potter’s former governess. In 1908, American author Richard Wright is born near Natchez, Miss. In 1917, the American Expeditionary Forces in France suffer their first fatalities during World War I when a German plane attacks a British-run base hospital. In 1951, President Truman addresses the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast. In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus uses Arkansas National Guardsmen to prevent nine black students from entering all-white Central High School in Little Rock. In 1957, Ford Motor Co. begins selling its ill-fated Edsel. In 1967, Detroit TV station WKBD aired an interview with Michigan Gov. George Romney in which the Republican presidential hopeful attributes his previous support for the war in Vietnam to a “brainwashing” he’d received from U.S. officials during a 1965 visit — a comment that apparently damaged his White House bid. In 1971, an Alaska Airlines jet crashes near Juneau, killing all 111 people on board.In 2003, Miguel Estrada, whose nomination became a flash point for Democratic opposition to President Bush’s judicial choices, withdraws from consideration for an appeals court seat after Republicans fail in seven attempts to break a Senate filibuster. In 2007, toy maker Mattel Inc. recalls 800,000 lead-tainted, Chinese-made toys worldwide, a third major recall in just over a month.

September 4, 1983: Ohioans disenchanted with the Ohio Lotto are flocking across the Pennsylvania border to buy Pennsylvania tickets at M.D. Ambrosia, an outdoor and garden equipment store within yards of the state line on Route 422.

Sara Darrow, 66, of 1514 Ohio Ave., dies in an apparent attempt to save her 20-month-old granddaughter from a fire that swept through the home. The granddaughter, Kathleen, is in critical condition at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

Cortland auto dealer George Apostolakis is working with state Rep. Michael Verich of Warren to persuade Honda to contract for parts with a Lordstown firm and to place a new manufacturing facility in the Mahoning Valley.

September 4, 1968: The Youngstown Board of Education hires Dr. John Bleacher, a 35-year-old pediatric surgeon, as school physician and more than 40 teachers, leaving only seven staff openings to be filled.

Navy Hospitalman Richard Lee Powell, a Chaney High School graduate, is killed while on a combat patrol with a Marine unit in Vietnam.

About 200 members of Co. A, 437th Military Police Battalion, Ohio National Guard, headquartered in Youngstown, are ordered to report for duty at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus.

September 4, 1958: Mayor Frank X. Kryzan terms as “irresponsible” charges made by City School Board President Warren Williamson Jr. that political meddling by the mayor caused the proposed Rayen Stadium comfort station to be shifted from a site on Ohio Avenue.

Five adults and three juveniles face charges after the Highway Patrol and Austintown Police crackdown on drag racing on Kirk Road between Turner Road and Route 45.

New and drastic cutbacks in evening and Sunday bus service on four major lines are announced by the Youngstown Transit Co. in an effort to reduce operational expenses in the face of declining revenue. Service on the Ford and Logan lines will be cut back from every 30 minutes to every hour at night.

Labor’s Community Services Committee is expected to screen more than 10,000 Mahoning County needy families applying for food surplus commodities that will be distributed beginning Oct. 1.

September 4, 1933: Employment in Ohio gains 35.5 percent between March and August, Ohio State University’s bureau of business research reports.

The 87th annual Mahoning County Fair at Canfield ends with a record attendance of 65,500, a mark future fairs can aim for.

A 41-year-old Petersburg man and a 17-year-old youth are arrested in New Castle after Officer Fred Haralan interrupts them during a burglary at the New Castle Wall Paper Co. on Washington Street. The yeggs had set their explosives and wrapped the store’s safe in wet rugs and were within seconds of igniting the charge when Harlan caught them.