Today is Monday, May 9, the 129th day of 2005. There are 236 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Monday, May 9, the 129th day of 2005. There are 236 days left in the year. On this date in 1980, 35 motorists are killed when a Liberian freighter rams the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section to collapse.
In 1502, Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere. In 1754, a cartoon in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette shows a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption reads, "Join or die." 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 becomes 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 Co. of Chicago.) In 1961, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemns television programming as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters. In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opens hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon. In 1978, the bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, is found in an automobile in the center of Rome.
May 9, 1980: Transworld Industries announces that it will go ahead with a proposed $2 million railroad car repair and manufacturing facility in Niles that could eventually employ as many as 750 people.
In a surprise announcement of more bad news for Ford Motor Co. employees, the company is increasing blue collar layoffs by 10,000 and ending merit raises and stock contributions for salaried workers.
May 9, 1965:A contract is awarded to Postal Contractors Inc. of Youngstown for construction of a $125,000 Post Office at 104 W. Hylda Ave.
Trumbull County high schools will graduate more than 3,000 students in spring commencements, the highest number in the history of the county.
William Bohne of Niles accepts a teaching position in the fine arts department at St. Norbert's College, Green Bay, Wisc. He will organize a sculpture curriculum in the department.
May 9, 1955: Dr. John E. (Jack) Gee, a native of Kinsman and a South High graduate of 1921, is named dean of the college of education of Bowling Green State University.
Dr. William H. Hudnut, 90-year-old former pastor of First Presbyterian Church, makes his 15th annual Mother's Day visit to his former Youngstown parish.
After a weekend recess, angry housewives resume picketing along a dirt road at Hoppel's Corners to protest against East Liverpool's use of a 13-acre tract as a trash dump. The women have formed a human chain to turn away trucks and have hired a lawyer to fight court action that has been threatened by the city.
May 9, 1930: Business in the steel industry already has improved and the outlook for the rest of the year is good, steel leaders assert at the annual meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute in New York.
Mr. and Mrs. Hugh W. Grant and Mayor and Mrs. Joseph L. Heffernan leave on a one-month trip to Europe aboard the S. S. Caronia.