YEARS AGO

May 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Friday, May 7, the 127th day of 2010. There are 238 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1789: The first inaugural ball is held in New York in honor of President George Washington and his wife, Martha.

1840: Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is born in Votkinsk, Russia.

1915: Nearly 1,200 people die when a German torpedo sinks the British liner RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

1945: Germany signs an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

1954: The 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ends with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that the pilot of an American U-2 plane shot down over Sverdlovsk has been captured alive along with proof the aircraft had been on a spying mission.

1963: The United States launches the Telstar 2 communications satellite.

1975: President Gerald R. Ford formally declares an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrates its takeover.

1977: Seattle Slew wins the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories. (On this date in 2002, Seattle Slew died.)

1984: A $180 million out-of-court settlement is announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they’d suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: John DeMain, the Boardman native who has received critical acclaim as principal conductor of the Houston Grand Opera, will be music adviser and principal guest conductor of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra during 1986-87, the orchestra’s 60th season.

Boardman Township trustees promise the Mahoning County commissioners “100 percent support” in the fight to change the state formula for distributing local government funds.

Alicia Pinkston, Anita Jo Dalton and Aixsa Molina receive special recognition during East High School’s Academic Excellence Banquet at the Fountain North.

1970: About 1,200 Youngstown State University students pack Kilcawley Student Center for an unprecedented open dialogue with President Albert L. Pugsley. He pledges thoughtful consideration to some 15 grievances presented by students a week earlier.

A one-mill operating levy for the Mahoning County Children Services Bureau is turned down by 58 votes, posing serious financial problems for the CSB, says Mary Jo Credico, the executive director.

Novice G. Fawcett, president of the Ohio State University, orders the campus shut down indefinitely following a week of student disorder. Akron and Miami universities are closed for the week.

1960: The ninth annual music festival of Youngstown district elementary parochial schools is attended by 2,482 students from 13 schools at South High Field House. A second concert by 2,373 students from 18 other schools will be held.

Carol Sosnowchick, 13, of Reed School, Campbell, wins the 27th annual Vindicator Spelling Bee by correctly spelling “officiousness.”

Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and Kappa Sigma Kappa fraternity win Youngstown University’s eighth annual Greek Sing at Stambaugh Auditorium.

1935: Before a turbulent audience of more than 900 persons, the Struthers Board of Education holds a five-hour meeting that culminates with a decision that teacher Pearl Keck, nephew of former superintendent H.S. Floyd, will not be rehired. Two principals and another teacher are placed on probation.

Earl Spencer, a Youngs-town policeman and holder of a half dozen medals for service in the United States Army, says he has been offered a position as military instructor of the forces of His Royal Highness Haile Selassi of Ethiopia.