Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, May 24, the 144th day of 2011. There are 221 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: John Hancock is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding Peyton Randolph.

1819: Queen Victoria is born in London.

1844: Samuel F.B. Morse transmits the message, “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opens America’s first telegraph line.

1883: The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, is dedicated by President Chester Alan Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland, and opens to traffic.

1935: The first major league baseball game to be played at night takes place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

1941: The German battleship Bismarck sinks the British dreadnought HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.

1959: Former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dies in Washington, D.C., at age 71.

VINDICATOR FILES

1986: Owners of Youngstown-area Aid N’ Save pharmacies announce that they are discontinuing sales of all adult magazines effective immediately.

New Castle bids its biggest department store good-bye after 57 years in business as the Strouss-Kaufmann store at 35 N. Mill St. closes its doors.

The new coach of Youngstown State University’s football team, James P. Tressel, says there is a direct link between a team’s performance and the amount of public support it receives.

1971: The Youngstown Board of Control awards a contract for demolition of some 90 structures in the Downtown Urban Renewal area to Ohio Contracting Co. on a low bid of $249,934.

William Jones is elected chairman of the Youngstown State University Student Council

1961: Sixteen members of the Austintown Volunteer Fire Department resign, climaxing a bitter feud with Austintown trustees.

Jerry Knight, Vindicator city hall reporter, is one of 16 Midwestern reporters cited for coverage of public affairs by the American Political Science Association for his three-part series about a proposed charter revision.

Light poles and fence are removed at the Warren entrance of the Ohio Turnpike to allow passage of huge sections of testing chambers for jet engines en route to the Lewis Research Center of NASA in Cleveland. The components, built by Chicago Bridge & Iron in Greenville, Pa., are two highway lanes wide.

A bill introduced in the Ohio House would abolish sales tax stamps at an estimated savings of $6.8 million a year.

1936: A hundred members of First Christian Church plant trees and shrubs in a “Garden of Memories” in tribute to Dr. Levi G. Batman who is retiring after 27 years of service.

A.W. Craver is elected to a second term as chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party central committee by a unanimous vote.

A rollicking crowd of 11,000 Mahoning Valley high school students dance, ride roller coasters, drink pop and eat hotdogs at the Vindicator’s big annual party at Idora Park.