Today is Monday, May 1, the 121st day of 2006. There are 244 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Monday, May 1, the 121st day of 2006. 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 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 1981, Sen. Harrison A. Williams Jr., D-N.J., is convicted in New York of charges related to the FBI's ABSCAM probe.
May 1, 1981: Eight of Youngstown's 16 policemen who were laid off in February are recalled to full-time duty.
The Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. will seek Small Business Administration approval to become a loan development company capable of helping to finance the creation or expansion of small business.
Plans are announced for a new 5-story, $24 million addition to Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.
May 1, 1966: A six-member committee is named by the Rev. Ralph Freidrich to chart a path for the fading Interracial Committee, which was formed in 1919 to assist Negroes who came to the Mahoning Valley to work in the mills during World War I and were without jobs after the war.
Officers of the Dog House Inc., a chain of 246 hot dog outlets headquartered in Youngstown, are in New York to discuss a possible merger of the chain with Associate Oil & amp; Gas. Co. of Houston, Texas.
A steering defect in 1966 Corvairs is brought to light by Ron Barnes, 22, a Vindicator wire room attendant, who took his car to a local dealer complaining that the car did not handle correctly. Chevrolet has acknowledged that some of the Corvairs require addition of a stabilizing bar on the rear suspension. The part costs 68 cents.
The 55 members of the custodial staff at the Mahoning County Courthouse are showing resentment at letters from Sheriff Ray T. Davis "requesting" them to appear for individual interviews about recent thefts at the courthouse.
May 1, 1956: Several hundred building trades men are reported off construction jobs as a result of a strike of painters, plasterers, lathers and cement finishers.
A Woodland Avenue man is declared "a menace to the driving public" and is fined $500 and sentenced to six months in jail by Youngstown Municipal Judge Robert B. Nevin for driving a car while his license was revoked on a previous drunken driving charge.
U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan says the death of Sen. Alben Barkley, former vice president, whom Kirwan considered a very dear friend, is a great loss to the nation.
May 1, 1931: Fruits in blossom, including early pears, plums, cherries and a few apples, are seriously damaged when the thermometer dropped to 24 degrees overnight.
Prophets of the Veiled Order Of The Grotto, Blue Lodge Masonry, numbering thousands from the hills of West Virginia, the valleys of Pittsburgh and the industrial sections of eastern Ohio, meet in Youngstown.
Youngstown police are hunting for two men whose auto crashes into a Strouss-Hirshberg Co. show window in W. Federal St. and burns.
Animal trainer William Harwood is asked by Cincinnati Schools Superintendent E.D. Robes to explain his version of an attack by a lioness on a six-year-old girl during a visit to Whittier School The girl is in Good Samaritan Hospital, recovering from her injuries.