Today is Sunday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2009. There are 242 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Sunday, May 3, the 123rd day of 2009. There are 242 days left in the year. On this date in 1909, a wireless news dispatch is transmitted from The New York Times to the Chicago Tribune in the first such communication between the two cities.

In 1802, Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city. In 1916, Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others are executed by the British for their roles in the Easter Rising. In 1944, U.S. wartime rationing of most grades of meats ends. In 1945, during World War II, Allied forces capture Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese. In 1948, the Supreme Court, in Shelley v. Kraemer, rules that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks or members of other racial groups are legally unenforceable. In 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher is chosen to become Britain’s first female prime minister as the Tories oust the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections.

May 3, 1984: A lawsuit brought by B.J. Alan Co. against Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. over Traficant’s raids on the company’s fireworks stores and warehouse before July 4, 1983, is settled. Details aren’t disclosed, but company owner Bruce Zoldan says he wanted closure before the 1984 fireworks-selling season began.

Neva Corn, president of the Ohio District of the American Lutheran Church Women, tells 225 women from 22 Northern Ohio churches meeting at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Youngstown that they must join together to oppose injustice, such as segregation of blacks in South Africa.

Youngstown State University’s John Goode is drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fifth round of the NFL draft. Terry Taylor, a Rayen School and Southern Illinois University graduate, is drafted by the Seattle Seahawks, the 22nd pick in the first round.

May 3, 1969: Virginia Manry, 56, the wife of Robert Manry, a former Cleveland Plain Dealer copy editor who sailed the Atlantic Ocean in a 13-foot sailboat, is killed when her station wagon plummets through a guardrail at the Route 7 interchange of the Ohio Turnpike. She was pronounced dead at South Side Hospital.

Christian people as a whole, as well as community leaders, are guilty of neglecting the needs of people, Clarence Barnes, executive director of the Youngstown Urban League, tells 200 women at the May Fellowship Day of Church Women United at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.

May 3, 1959: Martin Luther Lutheran Church celebrates its 100th anniversary with a thanksgiving service and a pledge of $100,000 toward a mission congregation.

Diane Denmeade, a 13-year-old eighth grader at East High School, wins the Vindicator Spelling Bee, duplicating the feat of her sister, Darlene, who won the 1958 title.

May 3, 1934: Three armed bandits hijack a truck loaded with tobacco and candy valued at $1,155 and kidnap the driver, Willard Nelson of Meadville, Pa., in Hubbard-Youngstown Road. Hubbard police and Trumbull sheriff’s deputies, armed with machine guns, are searching for the truck and the bandits’ blue Dodge.

Lena Jane Beilhart of Leetonia is elected to the highest honor for women at Wittenberg College — Alma Mater for 1934. She is the 17th Alma Mater, an honor recognizing the coed who “portrays the true spirit of her college.”

Youngstown area mills are reported employing as many skilled workers as they were in 1929, however employment of common labor has declined.