YEARS AGO

Today is Saturday, May 9, the 129th day of 2015. There are 236 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1754: A political cartoon in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette depicts a snake cut into eight pieces, each section representing a part of the American colonies; the caption reads, “JOIN, or DIE.”

1814: The Jane Austen novel “Mansfield Park” is first published in London.

1864: Union Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick is killed by a Confederate sniper during the Civil War Battle of Spotsylvania in Virginia.

1914: President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signs a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

1926: Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett supposedly become the first men to fly over the North Pole. (However, U.S. scholars announced in 1996 that their examination of Byrd’s recently discovered flight diary suggests he had turned back 150 miles short of his goal.)

1936: Italy annexes Ethiopia.

1945: With World War II in Europe at an end, Soviet forces liberate Czechoslovakia from Nazi occupation. In the U.S., officials announce that a midnight entertainment curfew is being lifted immediately.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Mahoning County Prosecutor James Philomena, who ran third in a four-man race for the Democratic nomination for Ohio attorney general, predicts that the winner of the race, state Sen. Lee Fisher of Cleveland, will lose in the general election to Republican Paul Pfeifer.

The Canfield Fair Board rejects the U.S. Tobacco Corp.’s request to distribute free samples of Copenhagen and Skoal smokeless tobacco during the Canfield Grand National Truck and Tractor Pull. Board members said it would be impossible to guarantee that the samples would not fall into the hands of minors.

State Rep. Robert Hagan of Youngs-town, D-53rd, wins his party’s nomination for another term with 77 percent of the primary vote, and state Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry of Austintown, D-71st, wins with 82 percent.

1975: More than 1,000 furloughed employees at the General Motors Lordstown Complex face a sharp reduction in their unemployment benefits as GM’s supplemental benefit fund has been depleted.

Donna Barnett, 47, of Weir Road NE, Warren, wins the top prize of $300,000 in Ohio’s weekly lottery.

Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., is offering a summer course in soaring. Cardinal Aviation of East Liverpool will bring two Schweizer sailplanes and a tow plane to Greenville Municipal Airport for ground classes and in-air classes that will lead to a solo flight by each qualified student.

1965: The Beaver, Pa., High School Dance Band wins first place for the second time at the 35th annual Vindicator Tri-Hi, Tri-Hi-Y Play Day at Idora Park. The Ursuline band placed second.

General Motors announces that its Lordstown plant will begin producing 1966 Chevrolets in the spring of 1966, nearly six months ahead of the original schedule that called for the plant to go into production in August 1966 producing 1967 models.

William Bohne of Niles accepts a teaching position to organize a new area of sculpture in the fine arts department of St. Norbert’s College, Green Bay, Wisc.

1940: The vacations of Mahoning County relief staff workers have been staggered to give them an opportunity to campaign for their friends, state welfare investigators allege.

The Ohio Supreme Court upholds laws enacted by several cities making possession of bug slips unlawful, giving cities a tool against numbers racketeers.

A Civil Aeronautics Authority examiner recommends that Pennsylvania Central Airlines be permitted to carry air mail into and out of Youngstown.