YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

Today is Tuesday, August 4, the 216th day of 2015. There are 149 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1735: A jury finds John Peter Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal not guilty of committing seditious libel against the colonial governor of New York, William Cosby.

1790: The U.S. Coast Guard has its beginnings as President George Washington signs a measure authorizing a group of revenue cutters to enforce tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling.

1892: Andrew and Abby Borden are axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. Lizzie Borden, Andrew’s daughter from a previous marriage, is accused of the killings, but she is acquitted at trial.

1914: Britain declares war on Germany for invading Belgium; the United States proclaims its neutrality in the mushrooming world conflict.

1915: English nurse Edith Cavell is arrested by German authorities in occupied Belgium; she is executed later that year.

1936: Jesse Owens of the U.S. wins the second of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he prevails in the long jump over German Luz Long, who is the first to congratulate him.

1944: Anne Frank, a 15-year-old diarist, is arrested with her sister, parents and four others by the Gestapo after hiding for two years inside a building in Amsterdam. (Anne and her sister, Margot, later died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.)

1964: The bodies of missing civil-rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.

1977: President Jimmy Carter signs a measure establishing the U.S. Department of Energy.

1987: The Federal Communications Commission votes to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which requires radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.

2005: Al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, threatens more destruction in London in a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera. He also threatens the United States with tens of thousands of military dead if it does not withdraw from Iraq; President George W. Bush responds by saying, “We will stay the course; we will complete the job.”

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1990: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and his potential to dominate the Middle East is reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy, says Dr. David Porter, a political science professor at Youngstown State University.

A yoga retreat led by Swami Jyotir Maya Nanda, world-renowned teacher and lecturer, takes place at the Hindu Temple on Sodom-Hutchings Road.

Seven patrol cars from Youngstown, Boardman and the Sheriff’s Department are stationed at the Mahoning Women’s Center on Market Street to maintain order between Saturday morning supporters and opponents of abortion.

1975: A “Good Samaritan” helped Robert Brown get his car started then punched him and stole $30 from his wallet after Brown refused the man’s demand for $20 for helping him.

More than 30 priests co-celebrate Mass with Bishop James W. Malone at St. Matthias Church to open the Slovak Catholic Sokol’s six-day quadrennial convention.

Campbell Patrolman Charles Xenakis is treated for glass cuts after a sniper fires a shot, shattering the back window of his cruiser on Gordon Avenue.

1965: U.S. District Judge Paul Jones, one of Youngstown’s most distinguished native sons, dies at his home in Shaker Heights. Jones,84, had spent 42 years on the federal bench.

Cleveland Indians southpaw Jack Kralick, a former Youngstowner, says his pitching arm feels like it has a knot in the elbow, making pitching difficult, but trainers haven’t been able to find anything wrong and say he should continue pitching.

Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes, who requested the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to convene a conference in Cleveland on what must be done to save Lake Erie from pollution, says the state is ready to do its share of the work.

1940: Youngstown district residential and industrial coal customers are bracing for soaring coal prices after appeals against new minimum prices for Pennsylvania coal included in the Guffey Act are rejected in Washington.

During “Gov. John Bricker Day” at Idora Park, Ohio’s governor tells 5,000 people that highway resurfacing material is costing the state’s taxpayers a third less under his administration than that of Gov. Martin L. Davey, reflecting his efforts to remove “racketeering” prevalent from the Statehouse.

Bob Janeski, the Youngstown Browns No. 1 pitcher, toils 11 innings at Idora Park and gets his 11th win of the season, beating Canton, 11-10.