Years Ago

Today is Thursday, May 8, the 128th day of 2014. There are 237 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED Press

On this date in:

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.

1914: Paramount Pictures is incorporated by W.W. Hodkinson.

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

1944: The first “eye bank” designed to preserve corneal tissues for transplants is established at New York Hospital.

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.

1972: President Richard Nixon announces that he has ordered the mining of Haiphong Harbor during the Vietnam War.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Three summer youth workers start in the Niles Park Department after the city and its service workers reach an agreement that could result in the hiring of full-time city employees.

David Holmes, managing director of the Warren Dance Center and its Ballet Theatre Ohio in Warren, says more children are getting involved in ballet. Holmes, 53, trained in the Soviet Union with such ballet legends as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

1974: Former Astronaut John Glenn defeats incumbent U.S. Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Rep. Charles J. Carney easily defeats two challengers for the Democratic nomination with 53,905 votes to 8,513 for John T. Holecko and 7,621 for Howard D. Greene.

Democratic Gov. John J. Gilligan and former Republican Gov. James A. Rhodes easily win their parties’ gubernatorial nominations.

1964: Members of the education committee of the Youngstown NAACP meet with Youngstown public school officials on problems of adequate summer school remedial reading for all and making free school lunches available to needy children.

The Boardman Township Zoning Commission recommends approval of a zone change request by William Cafaro & Associates to allow a multimillion-dollar air conditioned shopping mall, the first of its type in the Youngstown area.

Philip “Fleagle” Mainer of Youngstown and two other men and a woman are arrested in New York City by detectives and Secret Service agents with $200,000 in counterfeit bills in their possession.

1939: The picturesque covered bridge over the Mahoning River in Newton Falls is one of four remaining in Trumbull County. After 130 years, it still has its original framework and still bears traffic.

Youngstown Municipal Judge Harry C. Hoffman says that if efforts to stiffen the city’s gambling laws fail, he will insist that bug men be charged under state statutes that provide jail terms of 10 to 90 days.

The explosion of an electric refrigerator followed by a fire causes damage estimated at $800 to the home of Morris L. Steiner, 2332 Selma Ave., and routs seven people from the home.