Today is Monday, May 31, the 151st day of 2010. There are 214 days left in the year. This is the

May 31, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Today is Monday, May 31, the 151st day of 2010. There are 214 days left in the year. This is the Memorial Day observance.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1889: More than 2,000 people perish when a dam break sends water rushing through Johnstown, Pa.

1910: The Union of South Africa was founded.

1911: The British liner RMS Titanic is launched from its building berth at the Port of Belfast.

1970: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Peru claims an estimated 20,000 lives, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s website.

1977: The trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making, is completed.

1985: At least 88 people are killed, more than 1,000 injured, as over 40 tornadoes swept through parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario, Canada, during an eight-hour period.

1990: The situation comedy “Seinfeld” begin airing as a regular series on NBC.

Vindicator files

1985: William Johnston, president of Great Lakes Inland Waterway Inc., gives his support to a Lake Erie-Ohio River canal that Mahoning Valley proponents have been pushing for 50 years.

The federal government delays further action on Youngstown’s application for a $9.3 million grant to help finance the proposed $32 million Ronneberg brewery project.

1970: A throng of 10,000 lines downtown Youngstown streets for the Memorial Day parade.

The Ohio Department of Transportation proposes a connector between I-680 and I-80 at Meridian Road as a solution to a traffic problem that planners had predicted would develop more than 10 years earlier.

Gen. Lewis W. Walt, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, tells members and guests of the Western Reserve Council of the Navy League that “the 400,000 dedicated young Americans fighting in Vietnam” are a lesson in courage and determination for the nation.

1960: Three “mystery objects” that were seen falling from the sky in the late afternoon into a wooded area near Galt and Gibson Roads are identified: They were skydivers, members of the Youngstown Chapter of Sky-chutists of America.

Rain ruins a leisurely Memorial Day celebration, but doesn’t dampen ceremonies at area cemeteries honoring fallen servicemen.

Two men are killed and 82 people injured when a scaffold full of race fans collapses at the Indianapolis 500.

1935: Due to warm weather, the swimming pool at Idora Park, one of the finest in the state, opens on Memorial Day, along with all the park rides.

U.S. Sen. A.V. Donahey, D-Ohio, again declines to commit himself on funding for the Beaver-Mahoning canal. Meanwhile, President Roosevelt withholds action on the $5 million initial appropriation at the request of Sen. Joseph Guffey, D-Pa.

Youngstown honors its war dead with the largest parade in years.