Today is Friday, May 9, the 129th day of 2003. There are 236 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Friday, May 9, the 129th day of 2003. There are 236 days left in the year. On this date in 1961, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condems television programming as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters
In 1502, Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere. In 1913, the 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, is ratified. In 1926, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett become the first men to fly over the North Pole. In 1936, Italy annexes Ethiopia. In 1945, U.S. officials announces that a midnight entertainment curfew is being lifted immediately. In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration approves a pill as safe for birth control use. The pill, Enovid, is made by G.D. Searle and Company of Chicago. In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opens hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon.
May 9, 1978: A 17-hour strike by as many as 1,900 Youngstown city employees ends with a tentative agreement that provides increases of a minimum of 6.4 percent.
Raymond S. "Si" Lyman, 80, former Sharon Bureau Chief of The Vindicator for 32 years, dies in the Pope John XXIII Home, Hermitage.
Gov. James Rhodes, with approval of the Ohio Parole Board, commutes the sentence of Willie Head Jr., formerly of Youngstown, from life imprisonment to 5- to 25-years for a 1969 shooting death of John J. Sawaska during labor unrest outside the Lordstown GM plant.
May 9, 1963: Sebastian Pieton, 82, a retired machinist, is shot to death by one or more unknown assailants behind a machine shop next to his home at 2933 McGuffey Road.
Youngstown's Mahoning-to-Market Freeway completes its first full week in operation without incident and with no appreciable increase in the light traffic flow.
A 6-year-old fatherless youngster confesses to starting a two-alarm fire in the abandoned plant of Madison Machine & amp; Welding Co. in the 700 block of Madison Ave.
May 9, 1953: Mrs. Elizabeth Moore of Cohasset Drive is trapped in her automobile for about 10 minutes in Oak Hill Ave. when a trolley wire falls on top of her car.
Many Republicans express dismay at Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey's statement that the budget cannot be balanced in 1954 and the $275 billion limit on the national debt may have to be raised.
An enthusiastic audience greets the Rayen School vocal departments on the occasion of their annual spring concert under the direction of Waldemar A. Nischwitz in Rayen School Auditorium.
May 9, 1928: Clarence Darrow, the man who has climbed so high on the ladder of fame defending so many who society calls wrong, is at heart a boy -- just a big, generous boy, writes Solly Adams in The Vindicator. Darrow is defending James Munsene of Niles against a charge that he tried to bribe Trumbull County Sheriff John H. Smith. The trial is being held in Jefferson, Ashtabula County.
"The only way to solve the portable problem is to build more schools," Dr. William M. Davidson, superintendent of schools of Pittsburgh, tells the Youngstown Teachers Forum. Pittsburgh, with a population of 670,000 -- three times that of Youngstown -- has six portable classrooms; Youngstown has 39.