Today is Sunday, May 25, the 146th day of 2008. There are 220 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, May 25, the 146th day of 2008. There are 220 days left in the year. On this date in 1968, the Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, is dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention begins meeting in Philadelphia after enough delegates show up for a quorum. In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde is convicted of a morals charge in London; he serves two years in prison. In 1935, Babe Ruth hits the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1946, Transjordan (now Jordan) becomes a kingdom as it proclaims its new monarch, Abdullah I. In 1961, President Kennedy calls on the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In 1976, U.S. Rep. Wayne L. Hays of Ohio admits to a “personal relationship” with Elizabeth Ray, a staff member who claimed she’d received her secretarial job in order to be Hays’ mistress. In 1979, 273 people die when an American Airlines DC-10 crashes on takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare airport. In 1986, an estimated 7 million Americans participate in “Hands Across America,” forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation’s hungry and homeless.

May 25, 1983: The U.S. Supreme Court says the Reagan administration was wrong when it instructed the Internal Revenue Service to allow religious schools that discriminate on racial grounds to receive tax-exempt status. Chief Justice Warren Burger writes that the government has “a fundamental, overriding interest in eliminating racial discrimination.”

Governors of the economically distressed Great Lakes pledge to develop an agreement not to raid each other for businesses and to pool their resources to get more federal money for development.

May 25, 1968: Local and international officials of the United Auto Workers Union are meeting in an attempt to end a wildcat strike at the Lordstown General Motors Plant that was sparked by the injury of a Youngstown man who was struck by 384-pound beam while working on the floor-pan line.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., father of the slain civil rights leader, addresses an emotion-packed rally at Tabernacle Baptist Church, opening a weekend convention of the Negro American Labor Council in Youngstown.

May 25, 1958: Quick action by four men who plunged into Crab Creek saved a Youngstown motorist, James Hudson, 28, from drowning after his car crashed through a guardrail on the McGuffey bridge and dropped 50 feet onto its top in the creek.

Some 150 Youngstown residents were aboard the excursion steamer Avalon, carrying 1,100 Ohioans on a pleasure cruise when it struck a lock in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh. Twenty-two people were injured, including two Youngstowners.

May 25, 1933: Former Mayor William Reese testifies in his own defense against charges he assaulted widow Anna Washnok. Reese, a family friend of Mrs. Washnok for years, says he broke into her home after hearing her moans and found her beaten and in a semi-conscious state.

An inter-religious service draws 1,600 Protestants, Catholics and Jews to Stambaugh Auditorium, where they hear a minister, a priest and a rabbi discuss the importance of God in man’s life.