Today is Wednesday, May 4, the 124th day of 2005. There are 241 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, May 4, the 124th day of 2005. There are 241 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, during World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agree to surrender.
In 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit lands on present-day Manhattan Island. In 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour work day turns into a riot when a bomb explodes. In 1904, the United States begins building the Panama Canal. In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded. In 1932, mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, enters the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. In 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, begins during World War II. In 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. In 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that grants self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
May 4, 1980: More than 45 school crossing guard positions in Warren are in danger of being abolished because of a cutoff in federal CETA funds.
Some 17 rookie firemen -- with Chief Charles O'Nesti, the only men working in the Youngstown Fire Department -- are bone tired after answering 20 calls over the 36 hours that city employees have been on strike.
Thomas C. Graham, president of Jones & amp; Laughlin Steel Corp., says that within a decade the United States could face a severe shortage of steel and be at the economic mercies of foreign steelmakers.
May 4, 1965: Four tenants are carried to safety as a two-alarm fire rages through two buildings in E. Federal Street, damaging 12 second floor apartments and resulting in smoke and water damage to several street-level business places.
The Youngstown Welding & amp; Engineering Co. wins a $1 million contract for nuclear submarine torpedo tube sets.
May 4, 1955: Kenneth M. Lloyd, president of the Mahoning Valley Industrial Council, speaks to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Washington on the need for an "Adequate Water Supply for Tomorrow." Lloyd is an advocate for the Lake Erie-Ohio River canal project.
An insurgent Democratic group upsets veteran Youngstown councilman Jack Palermo in the city's 2nd Ward, but T.W. Caldrone is the only one of the group to win his race.
Municipal Judge Frank R. Franko bolts to the Democratic Party in the May primary, the most notable of the candidates making the switch. In Campbell virtually all known Republicans swung into the Democratic primary.
Roger M. Blough, 51, a stocky, soft-spoken law school graduate, is named chairman of U.S. Steel Corp.
May 3, 1930: Thousands of wild flowers, including 25,000 bluebells, that were doomed to a watery grave when the Meander Dam basin is filled over the summer, are transplanted to Mill Creek Park by botanist Ernest Vickers and a crew of 18 men working for a week. Other plants saved include violets, squirrel corn, Dutchman's breeches, Jacob's Ladder, marigolds, phlox, cardamine, valerian and dentaria.
Judge C.S. Turnbaugh, who has been sitting in Youngstown, says the law that compels judges to send third offenders in liquor violations to the penitentiary while allowing suspended sentences for robbers and killers is unfair.