Today in history

Today is Wednesday, May 13, the 133rd day of 2009. There are 232 days left in the year. On this date in 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, are issued to the public with a face value of 24 cents. (On a few of the stamps, the biplane is inadvertently printed upside-down; the “inverted Jenny” stamp instantly becomes a collector’s item.)

In 1846, the United States declares that a state of war already exists with Mexico. In 1917, three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal, report seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. In 1940, in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill tells the House of Commons, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act. In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, are spat upon and their limousine battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1968, a one-day general strike takes place in France in support of student protesters. In 1981, Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca. In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ends as police drop an explosive onto the group’s headquarters; 11 people die in the resulting fire.

May 13, 1984: Confusion will surround 1984’s Memorial Day in Ohio because federal law sets the date on May 28, the fourth Monday of the month, while state law still acknowledges the traditional date of May 30.

The Warren JFK team of Robert Ting and Paul Stabile wins the Class A-AA doubles title at the NEO Sectional tennis meet.

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May 13, 1969: Reputed rackets figure Thomas “Yonnie” Licavoli disputes a Life magazine article connecting him and Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes, and says, “I’m just as clean and I think Gov. Rhodes is just as clean as any person could be in regard to these matters.”

John Wendle, past president of the Youngstown Federation of Teachers, proposes a statewide march on Columbus to force the General Assembly to address the need for tax reform.

Dr. G. Frederick Smith, 77, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University Illinois, a world renowned expert on perchlorate acid, tours Youngstown State University while in town to visit a brother, Dr. Ivan C. Smith of Liberty.

May 13, 1959: The state says it can give little help to Mahoning County in constructing a new Mahoning County Home.

Five men are sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $100 each after pleading guilty in Youngstown Municipal Court to charges of illegally receiving unemployment compensation payments.

Leroy W. Case, a June graduate in mechanical engineering from the William Rayen School of Engineering at Youngstown University, wins the Louis A. Deesz Award in recognition of the school’s outstanding graduate.

May 13, 1934: Youngstown Police Chief Leroy Goodwin and Traffic Commissioner Carl Olson say that a fatal accident in which a car driven by Ray Goodwin, 17-year-old son of the police chief, collided with two bicyclists, will be investigated the same as any other accident.

Robert Chase Reid of Poland Manor is one of three students at Kenyon College elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is a graduate of Rayen School and a junior at Kenyon.

Youngstown Mayor Mark E. Moore proposes buying evacuator equipment to clean catch basins in the city, which would eliminate jobs, save money and reduce the possibility of political patronage in the sewage department.