Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, May 16, the 137th day of 2012. There are 229 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1770: Marie Antoinette, age 14, marries the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.

1866: Congress authorizes minting of the first five-cent piece, also known as the “Shield nickel.”

1920: Joan of Arc is canonized by Pope Benedict XV.

1939: The government begins its first food stamp program in Rochester, N.Y.

1992: The space shuttle Endeavour completes its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert.

VINDICATOR FILES

1987: Joseph J. Bucik, 75, is killed when he falls from a concrete wall divider in I-680 near Williamson Avenue overpass and into the path of a card driven by Langdon Riley, Youngstown traffic investigator, who was driving to the scene of an earlier accident nearby.

A scaled-down federal courthouse could be built at the Voyager Inn site if the city agrees to turn over an adjacent parking lot to the federal government, says U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.

1972: Al Shipka, president of the Greater Youngstown AFL-CIO, calls on members of the Campbell Board of Education to resign if they are unable to end a strike by teachers through the collective bargaining process.

G. Stanley Kreiler, chief deputy sheriff, is unanimously elected Mahoning County Republican Party chairman at the biennial organization meeting of GOP county central committeemen in Krakusy Hall.

1962: Federal Street in downtown Youngstown would be turned into a large parking lot with only limited through traffic under a resolution passed by the City Planning Commission.

Screams by Minnie Polio, a waitress at Gina’s Pizza Shop, 609 Albert St., scare off a pistol-wielding bandit who fled from the shop empty-handed.

1937: Youngstown department store executives say they are seeing no decrease in sales that might be attributable to fears of a steel strike as mills continue to operate at 83 percent of capacity and weekly payroll approaches $8 million.

More than 12,000 area high school students attend Vindicator High School Day at Idora Park, enjoying all the old rides, as well as four new ones, including the futuristic “Stratoship” and the “Idora Special” miniature railroad.