Today in history

Today is Tuesday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2009. There are 233 days left in the year. On this date in 1949, the Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

In 1907, actress Katharine Hepburn is born in Hartford, Conn. In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, is found in a wooded area near Hopewell, N.J. In 1937, Britain’s King George VI is crowned at Westminster Abbey. In 1943, during World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrender. In 1958, the United States and Canada sign an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD).

May 12, 1984: U.S. Rep. Lyle Williams, R-17th, says he believes a cabinet-level position should be established to help the nation’s small businesses.

East High School honors 100 students for academic excellence, a sign that Principal Lock Beachum’s mission to develop educational excellence is gaining converts.

Darrell Martin, 25, a Western Michigan University football player, is shot dead during an argument in Youngstown. A 32-year-old South Side resident is in police custody.

May 12, 1969: Jack Jurey, a former Vindicator reporter who went on to join WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C., where he pioneered on-air editorials, dies of cancer at the age of 45.

Teachers in Sharon public schools call a professional seminar, forcing the cancellation of classes, the equivalent of a strike after labor negotiations break down.

Marine Pfc. Darryl T. Dombroski of Austintown is killed by enemy rifle fire near Hoa in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, Mahoning County’s 70th combat fatality of the war.

May 12, 1959: An all-night rain causes extensive damage to the interior of the beautiful new St. Dominic Church, which was struck by lightning shortly before midnight.

The Gibson Homestead Improvement Club votes to present Youngstown City Council with petitions bearing more than 1,000 signatures protesting low rent housing units proposed for their area.

Three of the four prisoners who escaped from the Mahoning County Jail in March are punished to the limit of the law, each getting consecutive sentences of five to 30 and one to 20 years in prison.

May 12, 1934: More than 850 industrial foremen of the Western Reserve district meet in the Youngstown College auditorium. Attendance was lower than expected because many foremen could not leave the mills, which are running at the highest rate since 1929.

Joe Jennings, brother of “Sunny Jim” Jennings, former Trumbull County political power who served time in connection with the Niles police bribery case in 1930, has obtained a liquor and wine license for a place at 600 Jason St.

More than 2,000 people attend the Trumbull Eisteddfod in Warren. Groups from as far away as Hamilton, Ontario, attend the fourth annual Welsh songfest.