Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, May 10, the 130th day of 2011. There are 235 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1611: Sir Thomas Dale arrives in the Virginia Colony, where, as deputy governor, he institutes harsh disciplinary measures to restore order.

1775: Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, along with Col. Benedict Arnold, capture the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y.

1865: Union forces capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Ga.

1869: A golden spike is driven in Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

1933: The Nazis stage massive public book burnings in Germany.

1940: During World War II, German forces begin invading the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and France. The same day, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns, and Winston Churchill forms a new government.

1941: Adolf Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachutes into Scotland on what he claims is a peace mission. (Hess ends up serving a life sentence at Spandau prison until 1987, when he apparently committed suicide.)

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: A pickup truck headed the wrong way on I-680 collides with a Youngstown police cruiser, sending the Louisiana truck driver and two Youngstown patrolmen to the hospital. Patrolman Robert Davis, 33, is in the intensive care unit at Southside Medical Center; and Patrolman Thomas Malone is being treated for body bruises.

The 6th District Court of Appeals rules that 133 Youngstown steelworkers should take their plant-closing case against Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. to the National Labor Relations Board.

1971: John Wilder, 45, who was shot to death Jan. 11 in the parking lot of Rayco Auto Service on Market Street, is exposed as a longtime FBI informant, who also was active in the underworld in Youngstown and beyond.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. announces that it will join other steel producers in raising prices on rolled products by between $8.50 and $13 per ton.

The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District approves a 4.2 percent hike in the wholesale charge of water to Niles and Youngstown, from $85 per million gallons to $88.50.

1961: Liberty Township Constable Les Thomas hides in the trunk of a housewife’s car as she goes on an arranged “date” with a “telephone Romeo” who had been harassing township housewives in recent months. Thomas arrested the man who had been picking phone numbers out of the phone book at random.

Dr. Karl L. Fetters, vice-president-research for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., says the company is announcing a major expansion of its research and development division in a search of new markets, new products and new processes.

1936: The last step in authorization of the Erie Railroad’s Wick Avenue grade crossing is taken when City Council authorizes the mayor to enter into contracts with the state of Ohio regarding the improvement.

Congressman Stephen M. Young, speaking to 300 at Central Auditorium in Youngstown, calls his opponent, Gov. Martin L. Davey, “Public Liability No.1,” and urges voters to oust all “racketeers.”

Fifteen hundred men, women and children attend Trumbull County’s sixth annual Eisteddford at Warren.