Years Ago

May 8, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, May 8, the 128th day of 2010. There are 237 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1541: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River.

1794: Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, is executed on the guillotine during France’s Reign of Terror.

1846: The first major battle of the Mexican-American War is fought at Palo Alto, Texas.

U.S. forces led by Gen. Zachary Taylor are able to beat back the Mexican forces.

1884: The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, is born in Lamar, Mo.

1945: President Harry S. Truman announces in a radio address that Nazi Germany’s forces had surrendered in World War II, and that “the flags of freedom fly all over Europe.”

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: Mayor Patrick J. Ungaro captures 67 percent of the vote in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination with city Councilman Herman “Pete” Starks and former policeman Anthony Ignazio Sr.

The Western Reserve Transit Authority wins renewal of a 2-mill operating levy in Youngstown, but loses in Warren.

University of Miami Quarterback Bernie Kosar and Cleveland Browns Owner Art Model have dinner at the Pewter Mug restaurant in Cleveland Stadium and watch the Cleveland Indians-Chicago White Sox game from Modell’s loge.

1970: Three youthful vandals cause some $2,000 damage to 24 new 1970 Ford cars and trucks in the L.F. Donnell Motor Co.’s storage lot at 31 W. Warren Ave. Neighbors saw the three youths and called police, but they fled before cruisers arrived.

The Youngstown Planning Commission recommends that City Council approve zoning to allow construction of a $2.4 million elderly housing project on W. Indianola Avenue.

1960: More Youngstowners are seeking jobless pay than at any period since February 1959 with 5,712 claims on file, of which 1,384 are new.

Park officials are apparently at the point of surrender to the dreaded Dutch elm disease, which each year destroys hundreds of stately shade trees in the parks.

Thousands of political signs have been put up in Youngstown for the primary election, and if history is an indicator they will remain as eyesores for months.

1935: Mrs. J.E. Wilson of Jacobs Road, Hubbard, a traveling representative for a magazine company, drowns when her car left the highway and plunged into a river near Weston, W.Va.

Walter Haas, 17, of New Waterford, leaves for Jamaica for eight weeks of study of the planet Mars under the guidance of astronomer W.H. Pickering.