Today is Wednesday, May 14, the 135th day of 2008. There are 231 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, May 14, the 135th day of 2008. There are 231 days left in the year. On this date in 1948, according to the common-era calendar, the independent state of Israel is proclaimed in Tel Aviv.

In 1607, English colonists go ashore in Virginia to begin building a permanent settlement, named Jamestown after England’s King James I. In 1643, Louis the XIV becomes King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis the XIII. In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner succeeds in inoculating 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter. In 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory leaves camp near St. Louis. In 1900, the Olympic games opens in Paris, held as part of the World’s Fair. In 1942, Congress votes to establish the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. In 1942, Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” is first performed, by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In 1973, the United States launches Skylab 1, its first manned space station. In 1987, actress Rita Hayworth dies in New York at age 68. In 1988, 27 people, mostly teens, are killed when their church bus collides with a pickup truck going the wrong way on a highway near Carrollton, Ky. (Truck driver Larry Mahoney served 9 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter.) In 1998, singer-actor Frank Sinatra dies at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82 and the hit sitcom “Seinfeld” aires its final episode after nine years on NBC.

In 2003, smugglers abandon more than 100 illegal immigrants in a locked trailer at a Texas truck stop; 19 people die. Also in 2003, in Chechnya, a female suicide bombing kills 18 people in an apparent attempt on the life of the Moscow-backed chief administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov. In 2007, DaimlerChrysler says it will sell almost all of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 billion, backing out of a troubled 1998 takeover.

May 14, 1983: Ohio Civilian Conservation Corps officials take a driving tour of the Mahoning Valley looking for a suitable spot for a residential camp for unemployed youths.

Spectators jam the Cleveland courtroom where the trial of Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. is underway to hear the first public playing of tape recorded conversations between Traficant and Youngstown area mobsters.

President Ronald Reagan pardons Eugenio R. Martinez, one of seven men originally convicted in the Watergate burglary that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

May 14, 1968: Youngstown Mayor A.B. Flask asks City Council to approve a study of the economic feasibility of constructing a $5 million administration building at the Youngstown Municipal Airport to clear the way for major airline expansion.

Pfc. Joseph Clingerman, a 1967 graduate of East High School is reported killed in Vietnam when a jeep in which he was riding struck a mine.

The Greater Youngstown Area PTA Council awards its future teacher scholarships to Kathleen Malys, Linda Brienz, Marnette Morton and Phyllis Dundee.

May 14, 1958: S. Joseph “Sandy” Naples, who avoided serving his six-month jail term for gambling for four years, says two weeks of Mahoning County jail food are aggravating his stomach ulcers. Judge Forrest J. Cavalier will hold a hearing at which Naples’ lawyer and two doctors will testify about what should be done.

Raymond Karcher, 14, of Breaden Street, Youngstown, receives the Eagle award, highest honor in Scouting.

The Youngstown Transit Co. reports earning $7,886 in April, an increase of more than $2,500 over March.

A majority of Market Street merchants supports a proposal to install parking meters along both sides of the thoroughfare from Ridge Avenue to Princeton Avenue.

May 14, 1933: Thousands of voices join in singing a stirring Welsh patriotic hymn and then swing into the last verse of “America” to end a great Eisteddfod event at Warren G. Harding High School. The Welsh songfest attracted hundreds of visitors.

The Youngstown waterworks department will be able to turn in only about $50,000 of the $235,000 the city owes toward retirement of Mahoning Valley Sanitary District bonds.

As business increases, some parts of the U.S. steel industry are anticipating a quarter in which they report profits for the first time in many, many quarters.