Years Ago

May 22, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Saturday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2010. There are 223 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1860: The United States and Japan exchange ratifications of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce during a ceremony in Washington.

1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appears before Congress to explain his decision to veto a bill that would have allowed World War I veterans to cash in bonus certificates before their 1945 due date.

1939: The foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, sign a “Pact of Steel” committing the two countries to a military alliance.

1968: The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, sinks in the Atlantic Ocean. (The remains of the sub are later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1985: A nationwide gun registration requirement proposed by Rep. James A Traficant Jr., D-17th, triggers a volley of criticism from leading anti-gun control groups, including the National Rifle Association, which calls the bill “absurd.”

Youngstown City Council appropriates $5,000 for three councilmen, including Herman “Pete” Starks, who is a lame duck, to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Anchorage, Alaska.

1970: Six high school students in Northeastern Ohio get the highest grades in the state in various subjects in the annual scholarship tests. They are Janice Blazina and Alice Whittenburg of Girard; Gary Deckant of Canfield; Richard Graham of Champion; Thomas Gentile of St. john School, Ashtabula; and Vicki Martof of Brookfield.

Gov. James A. Rhodes backs up the pledge of Novice G. Fawcett, president of Ohio State University, that classes will not be interrupted by protesting students, by deploying 5,000 National Guardsmen to the nearby Ohio State Fairgrounds where they will be available to respond within 10 minutes to any unrest.

1960: The F.D. Mason Memorial Funeral Home has its grand opening at 511-515 W. Rayen Ave. It is operated by F.D. and Geneva F. Mason.

A primary election recount will be sought by Atty. Joseph E. O’Neill, who lost the Democratic nomination for Mahoning County prosecuting attorney by 26 votes to Jack Nybell.

1935: America still has the power to choose between “a cooperative commonwealth of mankind” and “some form of fascist dictatorship,” Norman M. Thomas, twice Socialist candidate for president, tells several hundred Youngstowners at Central Auditorium.

More than 3,000 people crowd the Junior Chamber of Commerce second annual industrial exhibition in the Youngstown Dr. Goode building on Market Street. The excitement was apparently too much for an owl in Mill Creek Park’s glass cage, which died during the first night.