Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, May 2, the 123rd day of 2012. There are 243 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1863: Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he dies eight days later.

1932: Jack Benny’s first radio show, sponsored by Canada Dry, makes its debut on the NBC Blue Network.

1936: “Peter and the Wolf,” a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, has its world premiere in Moscow.

1945: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announce the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

1952: The era of commercial jet passenger service begins as a BOAC de Havilland Comet carrying 36 passengers takes off on a multi-stop flight from London to Johannesburg, South Africa.

1957: Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., dies at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

1972: A fire at the Sunshine silver mine in Kellogg, Idaho, claims the lives of 91 workers who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dies in Washington at age 77.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: The Rev. Kenneth Dean, a member of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Task Force on Hunger in America, tells a Youngstown audience that hunger and malnutrition in Youngstown are widespread and federal relief is needed as much as it would be if a hurricane devastated the area.

The city of Farrell and Sharon Steel Corp. are given a week to come up with a plan to provide the local share of a $5 million federal grant for plant improvements or the money will be lost.

1972: Lykes Youngstown Chairman Joseph T. Lykes tells steel analysts in New York that he expects Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. to be solidly in the black in 1972.

Eleven Youngstown area men pass the State Bar Examination and will take the oath of office as lawyers May 6 in Columbus. They are James R. Cataland, Paul M. Dutton, James M. Herald, Jack B. Jones, James R. Lanzo, Robert E. Naylor, Constant A. Prassinos, John J. Rogan, Robert R. Rosenbaum, Alvin M. Podboy Jr. and Clifford L. Phillips.

The Edward J. DeBartolo Co. sells the 31-unit Austintown Plaza to a group of local investors for $2.2 million.

1962: Donald B. McKay, vice president of Home Savings & Loan Co., is elected president of the Youngstown Metropolitan Area Development Citizens Committee Inc.

A nine-year-old Sebring boy, Stephen Dearth, is struck by a fast moving freight train and killed while walking on the Pennsylvania tracks, eating cookies, with his back to the train.

1937: Doris Buzard, 14, of New Middletown wins The Vindicator spelling bee at Stambaugh Auditorium, making it the second year in a row that a New Middletown speller won the bee.

Steel production in the Youngstown area continues at record levels with April output exceeding that of March, despite on less day in the month.

A contract between the Youngstown Newspaper Guild and The Vindicator is signed by William F. Maag Jr., general manager, providing for a 40-hour work week with a starting wage of $25 for reporters, increasing to $40 after three years’ experience.