Today is Saturday, April 5, the 96th day of 2008. There are 270 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, April 5, the 96th day of 2008. There are 270 days left in the year. On this date in 1792, George Washington casts the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

In 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of the leader of the Powhatan tribe, marries English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia. (Having converted to Christianity, she goes by the name Lady Rebecca.) In 1621, the Mayflower sails from Plymouth, Mass., on a return trip to England. In 1887, British historian Lord Acton writes in a letter, “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” In 1887, in Tuscumbia, Ala., teacher Anne Sullivan achieves a breakthrough as her blind and deaf pupil Helen Keller learns the meaning of the word “water” as spells out in the Manual Alphabet. In 1895, Oscar Wilde loses his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who’d accused the writer of homosexual practices.

April 5, 1983: The proposed Mahoning County charter provision that is likely to be most controversial is that which would eliminate the election of a number of county officials, including the coroner, sheriff and prosecutor.

Drivers for the Western Reserve Transit Authority agree to a new contract that ties wage increases to the system’s productivity. The hourly wage for drivers will increase 2 percent, to $8.82.

Copies of an intraunion audit of the United Auto Workers Local 1112 alleging that union officers misspent nearly $47,000 of union money in the course of day-to-day operations are sent anonymously to area newspapers two days before a union election. Rudy Gasparek, union president, and Al Alli, shop chairman, vehemently deny any wrongdoing.

April 5, 1968: Flags are flying at half staff in Youngstown as local government officials and civic leaders express their shock over the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Mayor Anthony B. Flask says he learned of Dr. King’s assassination from Vice President Hubert Humprhey during a dinner in Washington.

An induction ceremony for 70 new members of the National Honor Society is held at Austintown Fitch High School. Jim Nespeca is president of the society.

Jim Caffey, 156-pound Youngstown fighter, moves to the third round of the AAU Boxing Championship being held in Toledo.

April 5, 1958: More than 50 young pine trees are destroyed in Mill Creek Park between East Golf Course Drive and Mill Creek Blvd. in one of 28 grass fires reported in Youngstown, Boardman and Austintown.

More than 7,000 people jam Stambaugh Auditorium for the opening of a three-day show of boats and boating equipment.

Judge Walter B. Wanamaker, 64, who has sat on the Summit County Common Pleas bench since 1930, resigns over stagnation in salaries for Ohio judges. He says his salary of $13,000, about $6 per hour, has buying power equal to only 43 percent of what a judge was paid in 1931.

April 5, 1933:Representatives of the legal department of six Ohio cities, including Youngstown, meet in Columbus to discuss a possible course toward obtaining lower rates from the Ohio Bell Telephone Co.

Better demand for steel from various sources, including automobile manufacturers, results in an improvement in operations for the second half of the week, Youngstown mill executives say.