Sept. 8, 1998

Rome merchants and shoppers should see a "leveling of the playing field" in less than a year with a proposal today from Mayor Joseph A. Griffo to eliminate the city’s special one-quarter percent sales tax on Sept. 1, 1999.

A rowing club, Erie Canal Rowing, wants the city to allocate federal funds for a water sports center at the harbor project.

Sept. 8, 1988

The city could lose its federal funding if it doesn’t improve its rate of minority hiring. The city has had difficulty in recruiting and retaining minorities. The combined totals of the city and Rome Hospital are close to the required 5.1 percent level.

Sept. 8, 1978

State mental health officials are hanging their hats on a state-funded program of Community Support Services to provide the necessary, and admittedly lacking, aftercare for patients discharged from psychiatric centers. Some $650,000 is earmarked for Oneida County.

Sept. 8, 1968

Four new minibuses have arrived for service on the Rome municipal lines.

Sept. 8, 1958

Three new three-quarter-ton trucks have been added to the Rome Post Office vehicle fleet. Soon the Post Office will begin door-to-door delivery to family housing at Griffiss Air Force Base.

Sept. 8, 1948

John Morse, Guild president, announced that try-outs for the first Theater Guild production of the season, "Arsenic and Old Lace," will be completed at WRUN studio.

Today in History

On Sept. 8, 1900, Galveston, Texas, was struck by a hurricane that killed an estimated 8,000 people.

On this date:

In 1565, a Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.

In 1664, the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.

In 1930, the comic strip "Blondie," created by Chic Young, was first published.

In 1934, 134 people lost their lives in a fire aboard the liner Morro Castle off the New Jersey coast.

In 1941, the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by German forces began during World War II.

In 1951, a peace treaty with Japan was signed by 49 nations in San Francisco.

In 1974, President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former President Nixon.

In 1988, two nuclear-missile rocket motors were destroyed at an army ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas; they were the first U.S. weapons to be eliminated under an arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union.

Ten years ago

Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals broke major league baseball’s record for home runs in a single season, hitting number 62 off Chicago Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel and eclipsing the 37-year-old record held by Roger Maris.

Five years ago

The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry’s largest trade group, filed 261 copyright lawsuits across the country against Internet users for trading songs online. Nazi-era filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl died in Poecking, Germany, at age 101.

One year ago

Sheriff’s deputies in Logan County, W. Va., rescued Megan Williams, a 20-year-old black woman, from a house in Big Creek, where she’d endured what authorities described as days of torture. (Six whites later pleaded guilty to various charges; a seventh is awaiting trial.) Top-ranked Justine Henin overwhelmed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 to win her second U.S. Open women’s title and seventh Grand Slam championship.

Today’s Birthdays

Comedian Sid Caesar is 86. Ventriloquist Willie Tyler is 68. Actor Alan Feinstein is 67. Pop singer Sal Valentino (The Beau Brummels) is 66. Author Ann Beattie is 61. Cajun singer Zachary Richard is 58. Musician Will Lee ("Late Show with David Letterman") is 56. Actress Heather Thomas is 51. Singer Aimee Mann is 48. Pop musician David Steele (Fine Young Cannibals) is 48. Actor Thomas Kretschmann is 46.

Rhythm-and-blues singer Marc Gordon (Levert) is 44. Gospel singer Darlene Zschech is 43. Alternative country singer Neko Case is 38. TV personality Brooke Burke is 37. Actor Martin Freeman is 37. Actor Henry Thomas is 37. Actor David Arquette is 37.

Rock musician Richard Hughes (Keane) is 33. Actor Larenz Tate is 33. Actor Nathan Corddry is 31. Rhythm-and-blues singer Pink is 29. Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is 27.

Thought for Today

"That pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric." - T.H. Huxley, English biologist and author (1825-1895).