Today is Wednesday, Sept. 10, the 254th day of 2008. There are 112 days left in the year. On this

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 10, the 254th day of 2008. There are 112 days left in the year. On this date in 1608, John Smith is elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.

In 1813, an American naval force commanded by Oliver H. Perry defeats the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. In 1846, Elias Howe receives a patent for his sewing machine. In 1935, Sen. Huey P. Long, “The Kingfish” of Louisiana politics, dies in Baton Rouge two days after being shot. In 1939, Canada declares war on Nazi Germany. In 1945, Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis (he is executed by firing squad in October 1945). In 1948, American-born Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio broadcaster “Axis Sally,” is indicted in Washington for treason. (She is later convicted, and serves 12 years in prison.)

September 10, 1983: Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. heads a corps of deputies in a general sweep of Youngstown’s South Side, bringing blistering criticism from Police Chief John E. Lynch III. Chief Deputy Floyd Crater said the sheriff was responding to complaints of loud noise, profanity and violence in the area.

Ohio Secretary of State Sherrod Brown endorses the continued use of an electronic vote-counting system, rejecting the return to voting machines. The Mahoning County Board of Elections had been deadlocked on the issue.

The Youngstown Catholic Diocese is seeking approval of a 300-acre cemetery in Austintown Township at North Raccoon Road and Oakwood Avenue.

September 10, 1968: The Mahoning County Medical Society is seeking funds to finance a survey to determine the benefits of establishing a medical school in Youngstown, says Dr. Robert R. Fisher, the medical society president.

A 25-year-old East Side man, Robert Berry, is shot and killed and his wife and 3-week-old son wounded by bullets fired through a kitchen screen door by a Kimmelbrook neighbor.

The 16th annual Eastern Ohio-Western Pennsylvania regional conference of the American Savings & Loan Institute meets at Hotel Ohio. About 300 people are attending.

September 10, 1958: An empty dump truck catches fire after being struck by an Erie Railroad freight train at Wheatland, Pa., The driver Raeman Schaeffer of Venango County, is seriously injured.

A $2 million shopping center will be built on Route 224 along Railroad Street in Canfield. It will have space for two supermarkets, a department store and about a dozen other businesses.

The Truscon Division of the Republic Steel Corp. in Youngstown is developing a “wonder window” that will react to changes in temperature and rain by closing itself.

September 10, 1933: Marion Bergeron, a 16-year-old high school senior from Connecticut, wins the Miss America beauty pageant in Atlantic City. Ohio was represented by Corrine Porter of Youngstown, 19, who was extremely popular with the crowds and ranked high in early judging.

The old Wire-Welch Distillery at New Middletown, once famous throughout the country for its “Middletown Golden Rye Whisky,” is preparing to resume producing whisky after repeal of the 18th amendment takes effect.

The 200-foot high old Knox bridge near Ellwood City, Pa., collapses while workers were dismantling it, taking one, Frank Hart, 50, to his death.