Today is Saturday, May 24, the 145th day of 2008. There are 221 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, May 24, the 145th day of 2008. There are 221 days left in the year. On this date in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, is dedicated by President Chester Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland, and open to traffic.

In 1819, Queen Victoria is born in London. In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmits the message, “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opens America’s first telegraph line. In 1935, the first major league baseball game to be played at night takes place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1. In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the British dreadnought Hood in the North Atlantic. In 1958, United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter becomes the second American to orbit the Earth as he flies aboard Aurora 7.

May 24, 1983: Edna W. Robertson, a document and handwriting expert from Panama City, Fla., testifies in the trial of Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. that she believes the signature on a confession introduced by the government was a forgery.

More than 200 people, most of them renters in their 20s who hope to buy their first house, line up in Youngstown to apply for state subsidized mortgages of 9.98 percent.

May 24, 1968: Goodwill Industries opens a $400,000 capital fund campaign to help finance a $765,000 relocation program. Goodwill has taken an option to buy a building at Belmont Avenue and Gypsy Lane.

Dr. William H. Bunn Jr. is re-elected president of the Heart Association of Eastern Ohio at its 19th annual dinner meeting at the Mural Building.

Youngstown City Council creates two deputy chiefs of police who will be paid $10,588.

May 24, 1958: The U.S. Air Force plans to gradually turn over complete operation of its reserve training center at the Youngstown Municipal Airport to local civilians. About 90 AF personnel will be replaced by civilian employees on civil service.

The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority is taking steps to provide low-rent public housing for people, especially the aged, who are displaced by urban renewal and other city projects.

May 24, 1933: Mrs. Anna Washnok testifies in the assault trial that former Mayor William G. Reese beat and choked her in her home in September. The 71-year-old woman said she had willed her home to Reese in exchange for his promise to take care of her properties.

Nearly 500 flower lovers, members of the Ohio Garden Club from throughout northeast Ohio, visit attractive gardens in Youngstown and attend a luncheon at the Youngstown Country Club.

There are five new baby swans at Crandall Park, hatched on Mothers Day. Park Commissioner Lionel Evans gave the two huts the swans use for refuge a spring cleaning.