Today is Friday, Aug. 2, the 214th day of 2013. There are 151 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1776: Members of the Continental Congress begin attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1862: The Ambulance Corps for the Army of the Potomac is created at the order of Maj. Gen. George McClellan during the Civil War.
1876: Frontiersman “Wild Bill” Hickok is shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by Jack McCall, who is later hanged.
1909: The original Lincoln “wheat” penny first goes into circulation, replacing the “Indian Head” cent.
1922: Alexander Graham Bell, generally regarded as the inventor of the telephone, dies in Nova Scotia, Canada, at age 75.
1923: The 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, dies in San Francisco; Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president.
1934: German President Paul von Hindenburg dies, paving the way for Adolf Hitler’s complete takeover.
1943: During World War II, U.S. Navy boat PT-109, commanded by Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy, sinks after being rammed in the middle of the night by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands. Two crew members are killed; Kennedy leads the survivors to nearby islands until they could be rescued.
1988: Youngstown schools Superintendent Emanuel N. Catsoules says there may be a reduction in special teachers and an increase in class sizes if voters reject a levy on the November ballot.
Johnny Ace Palmer, a Warren native, wins the first-place title at the International Federation of Magicians Society competition held at The Hague, Netherlands.
1973: Frank Gleason refuses an offer by the Western Reserve Transit Authority to buy S&P Transit Service, Gleason’s bus company that shuttles Struthers and Poland residents to and from Youngstown.
The Campbell Board of Education says that failure of a 6-mill levy by a 3-1 margin in a special election will mean schools will have to close when money runs out sometime before the end of the calendar year.
1963: Pointing to the loss of business by Youngstown Welding and Engineering Co., U.S. Sen. Frank Lausche of Ohio urges President John F. Kennedy to rescind regulations permitting Buy American Act provisions to be waived for Canadian suppliers.
Milk prices are increasing in the Youngstown area under federal pricing orders, bringing the cost of a half-gallon milk jug from 34 cents to 37 cents and a paper milk carton from 37 cents to 40 cents.
1938: Hubbard Councilman William Randall complains to Mayor R.C. Bowers that boys are conducting midnight nude swimming parties in Harding Park. Bowers says it will be difficult to stop with only one night policeman on duty.
Declaring that “the practice of spending nothing can be carried too far,” Frank W. Mouery, local business leader, opens a radio campaign for passage of the city and school improvement bond issues.