YEARS AGO FOR AUG. 4

Today is Sunday, Aug. 4, the 216th day of 2019. There are 149 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

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.

1792: English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is born at Field Place near Horsham, England.

1830: Plans for the city of Chicago are laid out.

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

1936: Jesse Owens of the United States 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: Fifteen-year-old diarist Anne Frank 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, would later die 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.

1972: Arthur Bremer is convicted and sentenced in Upper Marlboro, Md., to 63 years in prison for his attempt on the life of Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace (the sentence was later reduced to 53 years; Bremer was released from prison in 2007).

1975: The Swedish pop group ABBA begins recording their hit single “Dancing Queen” at Glen Studio outside Stockholm (it was released a year later).

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

1987: The Federal Communications Commission votes 4-0 to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.

1993: A federal judge sentences Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 21/2 years in prison for violating Rodney King’s civil rights.

1997: Jeanne Calment, at age 122 the world’s oldest person, dies at a retirement home in Arles, France.

2004: Former teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, convicted of having sex with a sixth-grade pupil, is released from a Washington state prison after 71/2 years behind bars.

2009: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardons American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee for entering the country illegally and orders their release during a surprise visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Taliban militants unleash a wave of rockets at Kabul’s international airport and government buildings less than three weeks before Afghanistan’s presidential election.

A gunman opens fire in a health club in Bridgeville, Pa., killing three women before killing himself.

2014: On the first day of a U.S.-Africa summit in Washington, President Barack Obama announces $33 billion in commitments aimed at shifting U.S. ties with Africa beyond humanitarian aid and toward more equal economic partnerships.

James Brady, 73, the affable, witty press secretary who had survived a devastating head wound in the 1981 assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan and undertook a personal campaign for gun control, dies in Alexandria, Va.

2018: A utility worker is killed in a vehicle-related accident near a Northern California wildfire, becoming the seventh person to die amid the immense blaze that had been burning for two weeks near Redding.

VINDICATOR FILES

1994: Columbiana County commissioners say they are ready to buy land for construction of a federal prison in Elkrun Township and donate it to the federal government.

The Ohio Supreme Court orders a new trial in the divorce of a Trumbull County couple after the court record shows bizarre behavior by the woman’s attorney, Lawrence Cregan, who has since been disbarred.

Ira Thomas Associates is acquiring Continental Communications Services of Austintown to boost the advertising agency’s annual billings to about $22 million and its workforce from 40 to 51 employees.

1979: The FBI and the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department are investigating a robbery at the BancOhio branch on state Route 46 in Mineral Ridge.

Sylvester Murray is named city manager of Cincinnati, the first black manager of a major U.S. city and says he’s ready to tackle Cincinnati’s racial problems by demanding respect for both the police and the black community.

The Rev. Lonnie Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, is appointed district coordinator for the Eastern Region of Partners in Ecumenism, a Cleveland-based program funded by the National Council of Churches in Christ.

1969: Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by city fireman Joseph Stefko helps save the life of 17-month-old Cheryl Banks who swallowed a piece of cookie while firemen ware extinguishing a fire at her home.

An Irish setter, “Ch. Major O’Shannon,” captures best-in-show honors at the 36th annual Mahoning-Shenango Kennel Club shows that attracted 1,064 entries to the Canfield Fairgrounds.

Police Sgt. Edward Zaccone was treated at St. Elizabeth Hospital for injuries received at Lincoln Avenue and Covington Street while arresting a man in connection with a North Side burglary.

1944: William H. Loller, under whose direction the Youngstown Fire Department became the second in the country to be motorized, dies at 80.

U.S. Rep. Michael Kirwan, D-Youngstown, is hosting his daughter, Mary Ellis, 18, who is spending a week of her summer vacation in Washington, D.C. His sons, Jack, 23, and Mike Jr., 21, are in the Army.

A second iron lung for the Youngstown area is being installed at St. Elizabeth Hospital, along with other equipment to treat infantile paralysis.