Today is Monday, May 7, the 128th day of 2012. There are 238 days left in the year.

Today is Monday, May 7, the 128th day of 2012. There are 238 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1812: English poet Robert Browning is born in London.

1824: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, has its premiere in Vienna.

1915: Nearly 1,200 people die when a German torpedo sinks the British liner RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

1945: Germany signs an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

1954: The 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ends with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

1975: President Gerald R. Ford declares an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrate its takeover.

1984: A $180 million out-of-court settlement is announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charge they’d suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.

1992: The latest addition to America’s space shuttle fleet, Endeavour, goes on its first flight.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: The Canfield Harness Horsemen’s Association opens its spring season at the Canfield Fair–grounds. The races provide valuable training for the horses, most of which are two-year-olds.

The A.P. O’Horo Co. of Youngstown is the apparent low bidder at $3.65 million for repairs to the Milton Dam. Great Lakes Construction Co. of Cleveland submits a bid of $3.9 million; Rumlin Co. of Akron, $4 million.

Mid America Resource Corp., a Mahoning Valley venture capital group, launches its first venture, Valley Lining Inc. which will line tank cars at the old GATX plant in Masury.

1972: Joan Dragos of St. Stephen School, Niles, wins the Vindicator Spelling Bee after a spelldown with Phillip Sherwood of Reed Middle School, Hubbard.

Dr. Loring Brock, medical director for cardiac rehabilitation at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Denver, describes the needs and methods of cardiac rehabilitation for about 100 attendees at the Youngstown YMCA.

The Youngstown State University Student Art Association prepares for the 36th annual student art show at the Butler Institute of American Art.

1962: Youngstown‘s annual spring car safety program gets underway with six inspectors from the Independent Garage Owners Association and city traffic cops setting up shop at Belmont Avenue and Tod Lane.

Portage County Common Pleas Judge James G. France is the principal speaker at the opening ceremonies for the spring term of Mahoning County common Pleas Court.

Some 131,650 men, women and children receive the free Type III Sabin oral polio vaccine during a two day event organized by the Mahoning County Medical Society at sites throughout the county.

1937: Sixteen schools will compete in the first annual Poland Class B Relays at Poland’s new $30,000 stadium. Among the runners will be Baird Mitchell, Poland’s undefeated Class B miler.

Some 1,200 vociferous members of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee call for a strike “if necessary” to get Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. to sign a written agreement with SWOC.

Youngstown Rotarians are playing hosts to 1,500 Rotarians and friends from 70 towns and cities at the annual two-day convention of the 21st Rotary District.