Today is Saturday, May 2, the 122nd day of 2009. There are 243 days left in the year. On this date

May 2, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, May 2, the 122nd day of 2009. There are 243 days left in the year. On this date in 1945, the Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announce the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

In 1519, artist Leonardo da Vinci dies at Cloux, France, at 67. In 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he dies eight days later. In 1890, the Oklahoma Territory is organized. In 1908, the original version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” with music by Albert Von Tilzer and lyrics by Jack Norworth, is copyrighted by Von Tilzer’s York Music Co. In 1936, “Peter and the Wolf,” a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, has its world premiere in Moscow. In 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican from Wisconsin, dies at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. In 1960, Caryl Chessman, who became a best-selling author while on death row for kidnapping, robbery and sexual offenses, is executed at San Quentin Prison in California. In 1972, J. Edgar Hoover dies in Washington at age 77 after serving 48 years as head of the FBI.

May 2, 1984: The Youngstown Hospital Association increases hospital room rates from $169 to $175 per day for a semiprivate room, but reduces charges for some inpatient and outpatient tests and treatments. A lung volume test will be $11 less at $75, and the charge for an X-ray of the wrist or elbow will drop from $50 to $35.

Racketeer Orland Carabbia pleads guilty in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to conspiracy to distribute marijuana in Youngstown after four other counts are dropped as part of a plea bargain.

May 2, 1969: “Bucks, brains and bodies” are the three necessary ingredients to solving the urban crisis, Dr. Robert C. Weaver, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development says during a Skeggs lecture at Stambaugh Auditorium.

The Sharp Lumber Co., whose plant at 1224 Brittain St. was destroyed by fire, has bought a Saramar Aluminium Co. building at 1900 State St. at the Girard-Youngstown line.

U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan, D-Youngstown, says the foundations for the Vietnam war were laid in 1947, when an economy-minded Congress refused a request by the Truman administration for an extra $3 billion to help contain Communist expansion. Kirwan made the remark after the Washington funeral of Rep. Harry S. Sheppard of California, one of the few congressmen who joined Kirwan in trying to provide the money.

May 2, 1959: Joan Melek, a tall blonde senior at Youngstown University, reigns over the 32nd annual May Day ceremonies at the university.

Camp Fire Girls will hold camping sessions at Camp Kiwatani from June 21 through Aug. 15. The Golden Jubilee theme of the camp will be conservation.

Five Youngstown teenagers caught in Washington, Pa., driving two stolen cars, are saved from being sent to the state industrial school after their parents post $500 bonds and vouch for their future good behavior.

May 2, 1934: Youngstown Police Prosecutor W.B. Spagnola files kidnapping charges against a 28-year-old Lilac St. man accused of taking a 12-year-old Mexican orphan into Pennsylvania, forcing her to marry him and then setting up house. He took the girl to Pennsylvania after finding no one in Youngstown who would perform the marriage.

Reports that 11 couples have had children through artificial insemination supervised by a New York doctor raise questions of paternity, with Judge Joseph Sabath, widely known divorce jurist, saying that in the eyes of the law the children are illegitimate until adopted by a father.