Today is Sunday, May 11, the 131st day of 2014. There are 234 days left in the year. This is

Today is Sunday, May 11, the 131st day of 2014. There are 234 days left in the year. This is Mother’s Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1944: During World War II, Allied forces launch a major offensive against Axis lines in Italy.

1858: Minnesota becomes the 32nd state of the Union.

1862: During the Civil War, the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled by its crew off Craney Island, Virginia, to prevent it from falling into Union hands.

1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded during a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

1953: A tornado devastates Waco, Texas, claiming 114 lives.

1960: Israeli agents capture Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1973: The espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the “Pentagon Papers” case ends as Judge William M. Byrne dismisses all charges, citing government misconduct.

1989: The final first-run episode of “Dynasty” airs on ABC-TV.

1994: Arkansas puts to death convicted murderers Jonas Whitmore and Edward Charles Pickens; it is the first time a state executed two people on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976.

1996: An Atlanta-bound ValuJet crashes, killing all 110 people on board.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: Youngstown area tavern owners say they cannot afford to swallow proposed license increases in the Senate that would raise the annual cost for private clubs from $250 to $1,250 and for most bars from $1,250 to $3,000.

A Warren woman, Margaret Webster, says the U.S. fighter plane that crashed while her son was piloting it near Japan in 1965 should be allowed to rest on the ocean floor. The Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank in Washington, alleged that Douglas Webster’s plane carried a nuclear bomb.

Charles P. Saulino is resigning as Youngstown‘s economic development director to take a job with Mahoning County Auditor-elect George McKelvey.

1974: A 21-year-old 200-pound jail trusty’s attempt to escape from the Mahoning County Jail is foiled when his homemade rope snapped at the fifth-floor dropping him 75 feet as he was sliding toward freedom. He is in fair condition at South Side Hospital.

Youngstown State University’s enrollment is 12,272 for the spring quarter, down 3.5 percent from spring 1973 enrollment of 12,713.

Bob Smyers of the Small Insurance Agency wins the Youngstown Lions Club’s 13th annual Turtle Derby at Boardman Middle School. The event raised $3,000 for the Lions’ sight-saving fund.

1964: A gunman robs the night attendant, Fred Deenbaugh, of $80 at the Sohio gas station at 924 Market St.

Burglars break into Monroe Elementary School at 435 W. Chalmers Ave. and take 50 pounds of Civil Defense survival foods valued at $12.

Akron Buchtel eliminates Niles McKinley High from the state Class AA baseball race with a 7-1 victory over the Red Dragons.

1939: Youngstown’s bug racket is emerging from hiding after two weeks of heat. Bug writers are taking bets on city street corners and some businesses.

Youngstown blind woman Grace Moses, whose guide dog “Jeannie” died of a streptococcic infection despite desperate efforts by veterinarians and some medical doctors, will return to work at her candy and cigar stand with a heavy heart after spending day and night with the ailing dog.

George R. Madtes, editorial writer for The Vindicator, is elected president of the Youngstown Symphony Society.