YEARS AGO

Today is Sunday, May 10, the 130th day of 2015. There are 235 days left in the year. This is Mother’s Day.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1775: Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, along with Col. Benedict Arnold, capture the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y .

1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union forces in Irwinville, Ga.

1924: J. Edgar Hoover is named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (later known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI).

1933: The Nazis stage massive public book burnings in Germany.

1975: Sony begins selling its Betamax home videocassette recorder in Japan.

1977: Actress Joan Crawford dies in New York.

1994: Nelson Mandela takes the oath of office in Pretoria to become South Africa’s first black president.

The state of Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy, 52, for the murders of 33 young men and boys.

2010: President Barack Obama introduces Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, billing her as a unifying force for a fractured court.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: The Ohio Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, discourages the awarding of permanent alimony in divorce cases and says alimony should not be fixed on a percentage of the payer’s income when it is not based on the need of the spouse receiving the money.

The Oakland Center for the Arts opens “Nunsense,” with Mary McClurkin Larouere, Juliann Cortese, Alexandra Vansuch, Michelle Cox and Kathy D’Amato Dravecky playing the Little Sisters of Hoboken.

The Youngstown Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 28 calls for a levy to be placed on the November ballot with proceeds used to hire 20 to 25 new police officers in the city.

1975: NVF Co., which owns 85 percent of Sharon Steel Corp., votes a 2-for-1 split of NVF’s common stock and a 25 percent dividend on the split shares. CEO Victor Posner says the split will “improve the quality of the market for the company’s common stock.”

A Pennsylvania police helicopter and police vehicles from six jurisdictions join a chase from New Castle, Pa., to Warren, Ohio, that reaches speeds of 100 mph and ends with the capture of two escapees, 16 and 18 years old, from the Abraxas Foundation, a minimum security institution for young men and women.

Chatty Armstrong and Belinda Brothers, both high school freshmen in Columbiana, are awarded the contract to run the concession stand through the summer at Firestone Recreational Park Swimming Pool.

1965: Perc Kelty, chief photographer for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., receives a degree of master of photography from Professional Photographers of America.

Atty. Dean F. Ferris of Poland is elected governor of the Ohio District, Optimist International, during their 17th annual convention in Columbus.

Karen W. Magill, a junior English major at Grove City College, is chosen “Miss Blue Tiger 1965” at the Youngstown Air Reserve Base as part of its Armed Forces Week observance.

1940: A bill to construct the Beaver-Mahoning waterway connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River with funds to be borrowed from the Reconstruction Finance Corp. by the Beaver-Mahoning Rivers Authority is introduce in the U.S. House by Rep. Michael J. Kirwan of Youngstown.

Thirty-four members of the class of 1940 of the Youngstown Hospital Association School of Nursing receive diplomas during graduation exercises at Stambaugh Auditorium.

The new home of the Youngstown Lodge 1673, Loyal Order of the Moose, at 114 E. Federal St., is dedicated.