Years Ago

Today is Tuesday, May 8, the 129th day of 2012. There are 237 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1541: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River.

1794: Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, is executed on the guillotine during France’s Reign of Terror.

1884: The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, is born in Lamar, Mo.

1886: Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola.

1921: Sweden’s Parliament votes to abolish the death penalty.

1945: President Harry S. Truman announces on radio that Nazi Germany’s forces had surrendered, and that “the flags of freedom fly all over Europe.”

1958: Vice President Richard Nixon is shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.

1962: The musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” opens on Broadway.

2011: Relations between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians reach a new low after overnight riots left 12 people dead and a church burned.

Vindicator files

1987: Local 4200 of the Campbell Organization of Public Employees files suit in Mahoning County Common Pleas court asking the court to impose a pay raise of 54 cents an hour recommended for them by a fact finder.

Commenting on the decision by Sen. Gary Hart to pull out of the Democratic presidential campaign after exposure of an extramarital affair, Atty. Stuart Banks, 17th District coordinator for Hart, says Hart assessed the potential damage to his reputation for sound judgment in making the decision to quit the race.

1972: Andrew S. Klinko, superintendent of Campbell Schools, resigns after the board of education orders him not to send out letters of dismissal to 126 striking school teachers.

Mrs. Mattie Webb Kilcawley, 87, of Red Gate Farm, Canfield, a philanthropist with her last husband, industrialist William H. Kilcawley, dies at the Park Vista Homes, where she had lived for six months.

1962: Two Vindicator carriers, Philip Scala, 13, of Niles and James B. Morgan, 14, of Youngstown, lay a wreath at a memorial to Christopher Columbus in Madrid as part of an 11-day tour of the Iberian peninsula taken by newsboys from across the U.S. who won a contest sponsored by Parade magazine.

Boardman trustees are shown plans for a multimillion dollar apartment complex on Route 224 across from Boardman Park that would include two seven-story apartment buildings and two two-story buildings.

1937: Mrs. Emery L. Mc-Kelvey, past president of three of Youngstown’s most prominent organizations for women, dies at her residence at 1810 Volney Road a few days after returning from California and Tennessee, where she spent the winter months.

B. Frank Thomas, Democratic campaign manager in Youngstown in `1934, resigns from his $5,000 a year post as chief of the Ohio division of securities. He will be replaced by Dan T. Moore of Cleveland, who is connected with Roosevelt & Sons, New York brokers.