Years Ago

Today is Sunday, May 25, the 145th day of 2014. There are 220 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1787: The Constitutional Convention begins at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.

1810: Argentina begins its revolt against Spanish rule with the forming of the Primera Junta in Buenos Aires.

1895: Playwright Oscar Wilde is convicted of a morals charge in London; he is sentenced to two years in prison.

1935: Babe Ruth hits the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1942: U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell, frustrated over being driven out of Burma by Japanese troops during World War II, tells reporters in Delhi, India: “I claim we got a hell of a beating.”

1946: Transjordan (now Jordan) becomes a kingdom, proclaiming its new monarch, Abdullah I.

1961: President John F. Kennedy tells Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

1963: The Organisation of African Unity is founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (The OAU was disbanded in 2002 in favor of the African Union.)

1964: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, orders the Virginia county to reopen its public schools, which officials had closed in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka public school desegregation ruling.

1968: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

1979: Two hundred and seventy-three people die when an American Airlines DC-10 crashes just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

Six-year-old Etan Patz disappears while on his way to a school bus stop in lower Manhattan.

1981: Daredevil Dan Goodwin, wearing a Spiderman costume, scales the outside of Chicago’s Sears Tower in 71/2 hours.

1992: Jay Leno makes his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” succeeding Johnny Carson.

VINDICATOR FILES

1989: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency orders the closing within a year of two Browning-Ferris landfills that have been operating in Mahoning County for more than 20 years, one in Poland Township and one in Green Township.

Warren city councilmen table the proposed repeal of an ordinance banning the sale of ice cream on city streets after members Virginia Bufano and Joseph Angelo say they want the health department to come up with ways to make sure vendors operate separately.

The Butler Institute of American Art will receive a $75,000 federal grant in a competitive program where only about 30 percent of the 1,355 applicant receive funding. It is the sixth straight year the Butler received the grant.

1974: General Motors is reacting to a slump in sales of full-sized cars by announcing that all of its divisions, Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Cadillac, will have small cars in the 1975 model year.

Niles teachers and administrators are conducting weekend negotiations aimed at ending a four-day strike by the Niles Classroom Teachers Association.

Two Youngstown firemen, Bernard Bindas and William Carney, are promoted to engineers and sworn in by Mayor Jack C. Hunter.

1964: Patty Taylor, 12, saves her 7-year-old sister, Denice, pulling her from a pool at a neighbor’s home on Ford Avenue after the younger girl went under in about 5 feet of water and did not surface. Another neighbor, Dr. J.M. Ranz was summoned and helped the girl until the fire ambulance arrived.

A freak “twister” sweeps through a small area of Lake Milton during a thunderstorm, downing a dozen trees and damaging the home of James Mongoris on Edgewater Drive.

Joseph Hill is honored as “Zionist Man of the Year” at the 6th annual Kfar Silver Scholarship Dinner at Anshe Emeth Temple.

1939: F. Gibson Head, first vice president of the Youngstown Junior Chamber of Commerce, is elevated to president, succeeding Atty. Wilbur T. Blair.

Norman Smith, 20-year-old farm hand who was found sane and faced trial for the murder of three people in North Lima, pleads guilty to three counts of second- degree murder and is sentenced to life in prison.

Mahoning County commissioners ask county Engineer Robert J. Schomer to prepare plans and estimates for replacing the Division Street Bridge, which collapsed into the Mahoning River.