Today is Monday, May 5, the 125th day of 2003. There are 240 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Monday, May 5, the 125th day of 2003. There are 240 days left in the year. On this date in 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. becomes America's first space traveler as he makes a 15-minute sub-orbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena. In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla. In 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named "Music Hall") has its opening night in New York City. In 1912, the first issue of the Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda is published. In 1925, John T. Scopes is arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces land on the Philippine island of Corregidor. In 1942, sales of sugar resume in the United States under a rationing program. In 1955, West Germany becomes a sovereign state. In 1980, a siege at the Iranian embassy in London ends as British commandos and police stormed the building. In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands dies at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in his 66th day without food.
May 5, 1978: Trumbull County Commissioner Lyle Williams says the DeBartolo Corp. spent nearly $80,000 in behind the scenes efforts to lure the Miller Brewing Co. the Mahoning Valley. The company also offered to contribute 503 acres of land, valued at $2.5 million, if the brewery were built in Liberty Township.
Three members of the Elliot S. Cowen family are overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a faulty furnace vent as they slept in the Liberty Township home on fashionable Logan Arms Drive. The family realized something was wrong as they became ill while getting ready to go to work and school. All were treated at North Side Hospital.
Columbiana County sheriff's deputies are investigating the shotgun murder of Thea Jane Beckett, 36, of Homeworth, apparently during a robbery at her Mountz Road home.
A hit-skip accident on Youngstown's South Side sends Youngstown patrolman Paul Durkin, 24, to St. Elizabeth Hospital for treatment.
May 5, 1963: More than 60,000 Mahoning County citizens are expected to go to 309 polling places to cast primary election ballots in Youngstown, Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville, Poland, Canfield and Sebring.
City property owners receiving notices to repair defective sidewalks are streaming into City Hall for information on how to proceed. Most are being told to wait to see how the city will be spending $591,600 in federal grants approved for sidewalk reconstruction.
While the Youngstown district is struggling with a serious unemployment problem, area industrial firms aren't able to find enough physicists, metallurgists, engineers or proven executives.
Sharon's new $1 million West Side Elementary School, which will open in September, will replace three old buildings, South Water Avenue, Lafayette Avenue and Russell Street.
May 5, 1953: John L. Minello, 52, Boston gasoline station operator, who police say is Thomas "Chippy" Mango, wanted in Niles for a 1939 murder, waives extradition and is turned over to Trumbull sheriff's deputies.
According to a list smuggled out of Korea by a released POW from Philadelphia, Pvt. Charles L. Galacia of Lowellville is one of 71 U.S. soldiers known to be held by Communists in North Korea.
An 18-year-old youth is shot in the left arm and leg by Struthers Acting Police Chief Andre Yash as the youth was fleeing from a store he had attempted to break into on Bridge St.
Although reconstruction work hasn't yet begun on the Market Street Bridge, the east sidewalk has been blocked off on the orders of County Engineer Sam Gould, who says it is unsafe.
May 5, 1928: The Youngstown chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union says city council is operating in secret, refusing to provide the WTCU with information it wants on why the Youngstown Police Department vice squad has been disbanded.
J.D. Cornwell, owner of a lawnmower repair shop at 92 Vine. Ave., Sharon, dies of a fractured skull received in a fight with F.D. Maxwell, 54, in front of Maxwell's home on Railroad St. Police said the fight began after Cornwell called Maxwell vile names.
Mrs. Roe Fulkerson, 57, of Washington, D.C., a native of Youngstown and wife of the editor of the Kiwanis Magazine, dies suddenly at her home. She was a graduate of Rayen School and sang in the First Baptist Church choir before moving to Washington 35 years ago.