Years Ago

By The Today is Monday, May 23, the 143rd day of 2011. There are 222 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1430: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians, who sell her to the English.

1701: William Kidd is hanged in London after he was convicted of piracy and murder.

1911: The newly completed New York Public Library is dedicated by President William Howard Taft, Gov. John Alden Dix and Mayor William Jay Gaynor.

1934: Bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are shot to death in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, La.

1967: Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships, an action which precipitated war between Israel and its Arab neighbors the following month.

1991: Talk show host Johnny Carson stuns an NBC affiliates’ meeting in New York by announcing his retirement from “The Tonight Show,” effective in one year.

2001: The Senate passes an 11-year, $1.35 trillion-dollar tax cut bill.

Vindicator files

1986: State Rep. Joseph Vukovich of Youngstown criticizes a new fireworks bill sent to Gov. Richard Celeste for his signature because the bill provides a loophole that would allow any Ohioan to buy fireworks if he signs an affidavit saying he will take them out of the state within 48 hours.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ranks the best and worst among the 101 nuclear plants in the United States and ranks Toledo Edison’s Davis-Besse plant near Port Clinton among the worst.

1971: Col. Chester A. Amedia, U.S. Air Force Reserve and director of the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, is named marshal for the Memorial Day Parade sponsored by the United Veterans Council.

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and the Youngstown City School District have joined in a unique program to provide adult basic education classes to employees at the former Buckeye School, which now lies on Sheet & Tube property.

1961: The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District’s Court of Jurisdiction judges Erskine Maiden Jr. and George H. Birrell, approve an increase of $1 per million gallons in rates charged the cities of Niles and Youngstown.

Furman T. Blackwell retires as superintendent of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.’s Brier Hill blast furnaces after 41 years with the company. The new superintendent is Howard Van Meter of Poland.

1936: George Brainard, president of General Fireproofing Co., says one-week vacations with pay will be given to all employees with five years or more service.