Today is Tuesday, May 5, the 125th day of 2009. There are 240 days left in the year. On this date in

Today is Tuesday, May 5, the 125th day of 2009. There are 240 days left in the year. On this date in 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. becomes America’s first space traveler as he makes a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In 1818, political philosopher Karl Marx is born in Prussia. In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, dies in exile on the island of St. Helena. In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla. In 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named “Music Hall”) has its official opening night in New York City. In 1904, Cy Young pitches the American League’s first perfect game as the Boston Americans defeat the Philadelphia Athletics 3-0. In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes is charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibits teaching the theory of evolution. (Scopes is found guilty, but his conviction is later set aside.) In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces land on the Philippine island of Corregidor. In 1955, West Germany becomes a fully sovereign state. The baseball musical “Damn Yankees” opens on Broadway. In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands dies at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in his 66th day without food. In 2000, the tightest alignment in 38 years of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun and the moon — as seen from Earth — takes place.

May 5, 1984: A cleaning contractor files a reverse discrimination suit against Youngstown State University, charging that a policy of reserving contracts for minorities has hurt his business.

St. Stanislaus grade school wins the Mahoning Catholic Conferences Division III basketball championship.

Mahoning County will receive more than $1 million in federal money to refurbish the 73-year-old Center Street Bridge in Youngstown.

May 5, 1969: State Sen. Charles J. Carney of Youngstown, Ohio Senate minority leader, says his staff is preparing legislation to repeal the Ferguson Act, which prohibits strikes by public employees. Carney’s bill would provide for grievance negotiations, conciliation and arbitration in lieu of a strike.

Burglars knock a two-foot hole in the wall to get into the Stambaugh–Thompson Co. in the Lincoln Knolls Plaza and escape with $2,500 from the safe.

John R. Roman of Youngstown is elected president of the newly organized Motorcycle Dealers Association of Ohio.

May 5, 1959: Mrs. Comus Beard, co-chairman of the YWCA spring fund drive, tells 300 women at a kickoff meeting, “if we are going to keep this building open, we must do this job. It is urgent.” The campaign goal is $250,000.

Burglars take men’s clothing and accessories valued at $10,000 from Esquire Custom Clothiers in the Lincoln Knolls Plaza.

Appearing at Stambaugh Auditorium, Roger Williams, all seats reserved, prices, $1.50, $2.50, $3.50 and $4.50.

May 5, 1934: Judge Harry Hoff–man says he is not taking the 50 percent pay cuts that have been enforced on all but nine city employees because he believes there is too much “dead wood” in City Hall.

Ohio’s senior U.S. senator, Simeon D. Fess, former Republican national chairman, says he will be seeking re-election.

Former Youngstown Mayor Joseph Heffernan and Youngstown City Councilman M.J. Kirwan are supporting an effort to elect committeemen from every precinct in Mahoning County with an eye toward unseating John Farrell as chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.