Today is Thursday, May 1, the 121st day of 2003. There are 244 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, May 1, the 121st day of 2003. There are 244 days left in the year. On this date in 1960, the Soviet Union shoots down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captures its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
In 1786, Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" premieres in Vienna. In 1893, the World's Columbian Exposition is officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland. In 1898, Commodore George Dewey gives the command, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley," as an American naval force destroys a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. In 1931, New York's 102-story Empire State Building is dedicated. In 1931, singer Kate Smith begins her long-running radio program on CBS. In 1941, the Orson Welles motion picture "Citizen Kane" premieres in New York. In 1963, James W. Whittaker of Redmond, Wash., becomes the first American to conquer Mount Everest as he and a Sherpa guide reach the summit. In 1967, Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. (They divorce in 1973.) In 1971, Amtrak -- which combined and streamlined the operations of 18 intercity passenger railroads -- goes into service. In 1978, Ernest Morial is inaugurated as the first black mayor of New Orleans.
May 1, 1978: Six of the seven maximum security inmates at the Pennsylvania Youth Development Center in New Castle who escaped after overpowering two house parents, are captured. The seventh, a Shenango Township youth, is believed to be in the area.
Campbell police arrest two teen-age boys suspected of using toy guns to stage a robbery at the Lawson Dairy store on McCartney Road.
Two Boston economists meet with officials of Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co. to receive information pertinent to the planned employee takeover of the company's Campbell Works.
May 1, 1963: The merry month of May is greeted with genuine winter weather, complete with ice and snow and record low temperatures in Youngstown. Severe damage is reported to strawberry and sweet cherry blossoms as temperatures at the Youngstown Municipal Airport dip to 30 degrees.
Common Pleas Judge Forrest J. Cavalier welcomes 67 men, women and children into the "fraternity" of U.S. citizenship as one of the highlights of Law Day USA being observed by the Mahoning County Bar Association.
The Lane Construction Corp. of Meriden, Conn., gets the $6.1 million contract for construction of the West Branch Reservoir dam and appurtenant works at Wayland, southwest of Newton Falls.
May 1, 1953: New Methods of teaching that encourage individual scholarship are being instituted at Western Reserve University, Dr. John S. Millis, the university president, tells the semiannual meeting of the Reserve Alumni Association of Youngstown and Warren. It will take about 10 years to see if the new methods work, he says.
Youngstown citizens are organizing to give Police Chief Edward J. Allen both moral and financial support in his federal court fight with a New York publishing company over enforcing an ordinance that bans obscene literature from the city.
Thomas J. "Chippy" Mango, former Niles racketeer, admits to the March 16, 1939, murder of a Niles bartender shortly after being arrested by Boston police. Mango, who had been presumed dead after disappearing, had been operating a service station in the suburb of Roxbury and came to the attention of police when they broke up a stolen car ring.
May 1, 1928: Police arrest a youth who robbed the confectionery of Francis Smith at 413 Holmes St. The boy stuck a pistol in Smith's stomach and forced the proprietor and a customer into a back room. He then escaped with about $4, mostly in pennies, and was free for about four hours, until police saw him loitering at Oak St. and Lane Ave.
Youngstown Optimists are hosting about 500 fellow members from the three-state Fifth District during a convention at the Hotel Ohio.
The Youngstown Board of Control awards a contract for $5,852 to the M. DeBartolo Co. for paving Pearl Street from Wilson to the south end of the street. DeBartolo submitted the second lowest bid, but the board ruled that the lowest bidder, Tiberio Construction Co., has other construction work under contract at present.