Today is Thursday, May 15, the 136th day of 2008. There are 230 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Thursday, May 15, the 136th day of 2008. There are 230 days left in the year. On this date in 1918, U.S. airmail begins service between Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

In 1911, the Supreme Court orders the dissolution of Standard Oil Co., ruling it was a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1930, registered nurse Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, goes on duty aboard an Oakland, Calif.-to-Chicago flight operated by Boeing Air Transport, a forerunner of United Airlines. In 1942, wartime gasoline rationing takes effect in 17 eastern states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for nonessential vehicles. In 1948, hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel is attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon receives a hero’s welcome on his return from a violence-marred tour of Latin America. In 1963, astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasts off aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program. In 1972, George C. Wallace is shot by Arthur Bremer and left paralyzed while campaigning in Laurel, Md., for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1975, U.S. forces invade the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recapture the American merchant ship Mayaguez. In 1988, the Soviet Union begins withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan.

May 15, 1983: The Vindicator runs a special section of eight pages of transcripts from the Traficant tapes, secretly recorded conversations between Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. and local mobsters Charles and Orland Carabbia. The tapes were introduced into evidence during Traficant’s bribery trial in Cleveland.

Paper ballots that can be read by optical scanners will be tried in primary elections in Youngstown, Struthers and Poland.

City Councilman George Mc–Kelvey, D-3rd, and David Bozanich, second assistant finance director, are questioning the $10,000 tab for a two-day minority businessmen seminar that was attended by about 50 people, but cost $10,000 for food and drinks.

May 15, 1968: Dr. Charles F. Bonser, an economic planner, calls on Youngstown community leaders to “initiate programs necessary to preserve and restore the Youngstown community,” including the central business district, which he says is in a fast slide.

Seven Youngstown State University coeds are competing for Spring Weekend Queen. They are: Susan Goodstein, Nancy McKinnon, Elaine Karski, Claudia Ward, Leslie Emery, Nancy Eckert and Sandra Hoagland.

May 15, 1958:The Youngstown Board of Health suggests the possibility of mass polio inoculations in city schools in the fall if the Mahoning County Medical Society’s proposal to give free polio shots in doctors’ offices falls through.

Mahoning County Sheriff Paul J. Langley says he will not obey a court order, if one is issued, ordering him to provide a special diet for racketeer S. Joseph “Sandy” Naples, who is serving a six-mnonth sentence in county jail. Naples’ lawyer claims jail food is aggravating his client’s stomach ulcer.

Chester Bailey is unopposed in his run for a fifth term as chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party.

May 15, 1933: Youngstown Health Commissioner Dr. C.H. Beight says nurses or women trained in medical work will be hired to answer telephones 24 hours a day at City Hall to handle calls for city physicians.

J.W. Mayze of Youngstown says work will being within 10 days to construct a shoe factory in Girard that will cost $115,000. The Liberty Shoe Co. will get most of its raw materials from the Ohio Leather Co. and will employ about 50 men and girls.

With 39 open hearth furnaces on the active list and three Bessemer plants operating at a better schedule, steel ingot output in the Youngstown District reaches 40 percent of capacity for the first time in two years.