Today is Sunday, May 1, the 121st day of 2005. There are 244 days left in the year. On this date in
Today is Sunday, May 1, the 121st day of 2005. There are 244 days left in the year. On this date 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 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 1931, New York's 102-story Empire State Building is dedicated. In 1945, a day after Adolf Hitler commits suicide, it is announced that Adm. Karl Doenitz has succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich. In 1948, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) is proclaimed. In 1960, the Soviet Union shoots down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captures its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. 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. In 1999, the "Liberty Bell 7," the Mercury space capsule flown by Gus Grissom, is found in the Atlantic 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, Fla., 38 years after it sinks.
May 1, 1980: The administration of Mayor George Vukovich is prepared to invoke the Ferguson Act or enforce state Civil Service laws governing neglect of duty if city employees strike, meaning that the strikers could face firing.
A barrage of protests from the bosses of meter readers wins an amendment in a Youngstown ordinance exempting utility workers from a law prohibiting people from taking short cuts across lawns. Councilman Leonard Yurcho says, however, that the law will still apply to postmen, because they make daily calls while meter readers appear only once a month.
A U.S. Department of Energy official orders the Standard Oil Co. of Ohio to raise its gasoline prices an average of 10 cents a gallon. Independent oil dealers say Sohio's access to Alaskan oil gave it an unfair pricing advantage.
May 1, 1965: Nick Harris, 13, of Volney Rogers Junior High School becomes the champion of the 32nd annual Vindicator Spelling Bee.
Six adults are charged in a morals ring involving nine Struthers juveniles. The juveniles and their parents cooperated in a month-long police investigation of sexual abuse.
Speaking at the annual banquet of Price Memorial AME Zion Church, Malvin R. Gooden, ABC News correspondent, says, "The people of Youngstown and other Northern cities should solve their own discrimination problems before pointing the finger of scorn at Alabama and Mississippi."
May 1, 1955: Roland Mitchell of Hayes Junior High School, Youngstown, spells down 98 school champions from every public and parochial school in Mahoning County in The Vindicator's 22nd annual spelling bee. The 12-year-old Youngstown boy's great-grandparents were slaves in Tennessee.
The Mahoning Chapter of the Reserve Officers Association honors Congressman Michael J. Kirwan and William F. Maag Jr., editor and publisher of The Vindicator, for their consistent support of an adequate program of military preparedness for America.
About 25,000 citizens of Mahoning County municipalities are expected to go to the polls to cast ballots in the party primaries.
May 1, 1930: Leo Murphy, former South High School football and basketball star, dies in St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh a week after suffering a a broken neck, which left him paralyzed, during football practice at the University of Pittsburgh.
On the orders of Police Chief Paul E. Lyden, Youngstown mill gates are guarded by squads of city police officers. They stand ready to quell any disturbances that might arise over the May Day celebrations being held by local Communist leaders.
Louise Fordyce, Youngstown's star woman golfer, wins her singles match in the Anglo-American tournament against Doris Chambers, a former British champion. Miss Chambers' teammates, however, prevailed over the Americans in team play at Sunningdale, England.
A $50,000 damage award, the largest in the history of Geauga County, is made to T.F. Huckle, 25, of Warren, who said his left side has been paralyzed since his car was struck by one driven by Henry Taus of Cleveland near Parkman.
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