Today in History

Today is Thursday, May 25, the 145th day of 2006. There are 220 days left in the year. On this date in 1787, the Constitutional Convention is convened in Philadelphia after enough delegates show up for a quorum.
In 1810, Argentina begins its revolt against Spain. In 1844, the first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, appears in the Baltimore Patriot. In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde is convicted of a morals charge in London; he is sentenced to prison. In 1935, Babe Ruth hits the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1946, Transjordan (now Jordan) becomes a kingdom as it proclaims its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein. In 1961, President Kennedy asks the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In 1968, the Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, is dedicated. In 1976, U.S. Rep. Wayne L. Hays, D-Ohio, admits to a "personal relationship" with Elizabeth Ray, a committee staff member who claimed she'd received her job in order to be Hays' mistress. In 1979, 275 people die when an American Airlines DC10 crashes on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare airport. In 1986, an estimated 7 million Americans participate in "Hands Across America," forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless.
May 25, 1981: The dream of a Lake Erie-to-Ohio River canal are still alive and old antagonists are gone, says Atty. Kenneth M. Lloyd, who once spearheaded the fight for the waterway.
A Hubbard couple, Dr. Robert Littman, 40, and his wife, Carolann, 33, die in a wreck of their single-engine plane on Cheat Mountain near Elkins, W. Va.
Temperatures that reached a record high of 85 degrees bring out sunbathers, swimmers, boaters and picnickers on the Memorial Day weekend in the Mahoning Valley.
May 25, 1966: A flash fire sends more than 350 girls fleeing from their beds when flames break out in the girls dormitory at Kent State University. An orderly evacuation of Verder Hall prevented any injuries. Damage is estimated to be as high as $100,000.
One of two inmates who have been on the loose for four days after escaping from the Mahoning County Jail is positively identified as the man who robbed New Castle pizza shop owner Louis Costa, 72, of $82.
Negro colleges are a major source of opportunity for Negro youth seeking higher education as society moves toward the ideal of racial equality, Dr. Vivian Henderson, president of Clark College in Atlanta, says when Youngstown opens its United Negro College fund drive in the Mural Room.
May 25, 1956: Paul C. Weick, a Youngstown native who became one of Akron's most prominent attorney, returns to Youngstown as a federal district judge for Northern Ohio and will hear cases in Youngstown's Post Office Building.
An 18-year-old South Side youth and four teenage girls are injured when their car crashed into another auto at Loveland Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard.
Six more girls and four boys ranging in age from 10 to 13 are implicated in vandalism to the Edith Kauffman Quarry Gardens in Mill Creek Park, bringing to 25 the number of youngsters involved in the case.
May 25, 1931: The cornerstone for the new Youngstown College is laid on Wick Avenue near the Butler Art Institute, and Henry A. Butler predicts that the square on Wick Avenue will become "an oasis in the civic life of the city."
With only one day to go in the Community Fund drive, Leonard T. Skeggs, fund chairman, says only a miracle can save the day. The drive is $223,000 short of its $550,000 goal.
Twenty state prohibition officers, including two assigned to Youngstown, will be placed on indefinite furlough because of a lack of funds. New appropriations are expected for the prohibition department in July.