Today in history

Today is Saturday, May 9, the 129th day of 2009. There are 236 days left in the year. On this date in 1754, a cartoon in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette shows a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption reads, “JOIN, or DIE.”

In 1883, Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset is born in Madrid. In 1936, Italy annexes Ethiopia. In 1945, U.S. officials announce that a midnight entertainment curfew is being lifted immediately. In 1961, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow deplores the majority of television programming as a “vast wasteland” in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters. In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opens public hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon. In 1978, the bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who’d been abducted by the Red Brigades, is found in an automobile in Rome. In 1980, 35 people are killed when a freighter rams the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section to collapse.

May 9, 1984: Mahoning County Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. registers a landslide victory in the race for the Democratic nomination in the 17th Congressional District, beating Thomas J. Carney by 32,000 votes. He will challenge Republican incumbent Lyle Williams in November.

Edward P. Nemeth is the Democratic nominee for Mahoning County sheriff and will face Republican George Grahovac and Liberty Township Chief Orlando DiLullo, an independent, in the November race to replace Traficant.

Gary Hart defeats Walter Mondale in the Ohio Democratic presidential primary. He carried the 17th Congressional District with 43 percent of the vote; Mondale got 40.

May 9, 1969: General Motors Corp.’s crash construction program at its Lordstown plant has boosted the cost of construction in the Youngstown area on everything from private construction to shopping malls.

Some 200 truckers and warehousemen, members of Teamsters Local 377, go on strike against seven area grocery outlets.

Youngstown Foundry and Machine Co. gets a contract for $3 million worth of equipment from the Jarl Extrusion Co. of East Rochester, N.Y.

May 9, 1959: Police are quizzing four people in connection with a car bombing that caused the death of Christ Sofocleous and are trying to determine if the bombing was connected to jealousy, underworld revenge or some other motive.

Counsel for Youngstown racketeer Vince DeNiro will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the gambling kingpin’s 30-day jail sentence for contempt of court. DeNiro was sentenced after being found inside his coffee shop and gambling den after Judge David Jenkins ordered the place padlocked.

May 9, 1934: For the first time since the repeal of prohibition, Youngstown police begin making arrests to enforce state liquor law.

Farm hand Nick Ursoiu, 44, dies in South Side Hospital of a gunshot wound despite receiving a blood transfusion from his brother-in-law, Thomas Sinai, 45, who is accused of shooting him during an argument over clothing.

Mayor Mark Moore orders all department heads to keep a record of the mileage traveled on city business by all employees who are receiving mileage compensation because of reports of abuse of such payments.