Today is Friday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2005. There are 330 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin begin a wartime conference at Yalta.
In 1783, Britain declares a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America. In 1789, electors unanimously choose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. In 1801, John Marshall is sworn in as chief justice of the United States. In 1861, delegates from six southern states meet in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America. In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opens the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid. In 1941, the United Service Organizations (USO) comes into existence. In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1983, singer Karen Carpenter dies in Downey, Calif., at age 32. In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, Calif., finds O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
February 4, 1980: The Butler Institute of American Arts is lending to the National Gallery of Art in Washington one of its masterpieces, "Ship Starlight in the Fog" by Fitzhugh Lanes for a special exhibit, "American Light -- the Luminist Movement."
President Carter's budget for fiscal 1981 contains a hidden federal income tax increase of more than $18 billion on Americans whose taxes will go up as inflation drives incomes higher. Carter proposes to spend $616 billion in the new fiscal year, and anticipates a deficit of $16 billion (down from $40 billion anticipated in the 1980 fiscal year).
Gov. Frank J. Lausche warns Ohio lawmakers that the state must already find $55 million to meet mounting costs for schools and serving the needs of the poor, and that the additional programs being proposed in the legislature will mean increased taxes.
February 4, 1965: An increase in the purchasing of pipe and wire products nudges the nation's steel industry closer to the all-time steel production high of 1959.
Youngstown Mayor Anthony B. Flask will be opposed by former Mayor Frank R. Franko, John P. Powers and Carl "Lucky" Venzeio in the Democratic mayoral primary. George L. Stowe and Donald J. Lewis vie for the Republican nod.
Twenty-three unemployed men from the Youngstown area will be trained in industrial machine operation at government expense and candidate are being sought for the 33-week course.
February 4, 1955: The Air Force is expected to begin setting up a reserve jet fighter squadron within a week following final clearance of its plans for a Reserve Training Center at Youngstown Municipal Airport.
Youngstown steel mills will boost output slightly, bringing it to 89 percent of capacity, somewhat above the national operating rate.
The National Council of Churches says that anyone who condones or practices racial prejudice of any kind "sins against God," which constitutes the strongest church denunciation yet of racial discrimination.
February 4, 1930: Out-of-town contractor in general and the John F. Casey Co. of Pittsburgh in particular are criticized by Youngstown City Council for failure "to pay a living labor wage." The company, which is building the Holmes Street bridge, is paying laborers 35 cents an hour. A Casey manager says it's a fair wage for which he could find 500 men in Youngstown eager to work.
Charles Evans Hughes, one of the nation's foremost jurists and statesmen, is named by President Hoover to succeed William Howard Taft as chief justice of the Supreme Court.