Today is Wednesday, May 21, the 142nd day of 2008. There are 224 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Wednesday, May 21, the 142nd day of 2008. There are 224 days left in the year. On this date in 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh lands his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto dies while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.In 1832, the first Democratic National Convention gets under way, in Baltimore. In 1840, New Zealand is declared a British colony. In 1892, the opera “Pagliacci,” by Ruggero Leoncavallo, is first performed, in Milan, Italy. In 1881, Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. In 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks is murdered in a “thrill killing” committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago. In 1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean as she lands in Northern Ireland, about 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland. In 1956, the United States explodes the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

May 21, 1983: Pittsburgh Pirates Manager Chuck Tanner revamps the line-up as he prepares to play 46 games in 46 days, giving regulars Dave Parker, Jason Thompson and Johnny Ray a rest, and wins 4-3 over the Houston Astros.

Immanuel Lutheran Church on Redondo Road is holding two services to mark the congregation’s centennial.

The Sharon Speedway Racing Association Club files an appeal with the Ohio Liquor Control Commission seeking a permit to sell beer at racing events.

May 21, 1968: Dr. Walter C. Garland, assistant superintendent of Youngstown city schools, and Julius Demi, supervisor of federal assistance programs, resign, Dr. Garland to take a faculty post at Eastern Illinois University; Demi to retire.

The Mahoning County Welfare Department estimates it will need $647,731 from the county general fund in 1969, an increase of $292,500 over the 1968 appropriation.

Four Liberty Township patrolmen are given three days suspension by township trustees over an incident behind the closed Liberty Plaza when a firecracker was thrown from a police cruiser April 9 during a period of racial unrest. Chief John Bluedorn recommended no discipline, saying it was impossible to know what exactly happened.

May 21, 1958: James R. Dickson, 42, of Girard, sales manager for the department store division of the Benada Division of Textron, Inc., was one of 12 people killed when a Capital Airlines plane collided with a military plane near Brunswick, Md.

Youngstown Park Superintendent Edward Finamore says unemployed family men, especially those whose unemployment insurance has run out, are being hired for about 75 summer jobs in city parks.

Grant E. Spong, industrial relations manager of General Fireproofing Co., is elected chairman of the steering committee of the Mayor’s Committee on Human Relations, which will assist the city in relocating families to make way for the proposed arterial highway.

May 21, 1933: Famed violinist Rubinoff sits in Youngstown’s State Theater for more than an hour examining 40 violins brought to him for appraisal. Sixteen of the instruments were said to be made by Stradivarius, as is Rubinoff’s $100,000 violin, but none of the local violins were genuine Strads.

Two Leetonia trolleys collide on the Youngstown & Suburban track on a curve between Woodworth and Southern Park, injuring two motormen and five passengers. Each of the motormen, William Heinbaugh and Raymond Irons, had to have a leg amputated.

The Tod Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, which once counted 700 veterans of the Civil War among its members, is down to 24 men as Memorial Day 1933 approaches.