YEARS AGO

years ago

Today is Tuesday, May 10, the 131st day of 2016. There are 235 days left in the year.

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.

1863: During the Civil War, Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson dies of pneumonia, a complication resulting from being hit by friendly fire eight days earlier during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.

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

1869: A golden spike is driven in Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

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.

1940: During World War II, German forces begin invading the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and France. The same day, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns, and Winston Churchill forms a new government.

1941: Adolf Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachutes into Scotland on what he claims is a peace mission. (Hess ended up serving a life sentence at Spandau Prison until 1987, when he apparently committed suicide at age 93.)

1960: The nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton completes its submerged navigation of the globe.

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.

2015: Cuban President Raul Castro meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank him for working for U.S.-Cuba detente and says he is so impressed by the pontiff, he is considering returning to the Catholic church.

VINDICATOR FILES

1991: Warren Mayor Daniel Sferra names Kent Fusselman the city’s acting fire chief.

The board of the Trumbull County Joint Vocational School adopts a resolution accepting the Warren Board of Education’s request to join 15 other school districts in the county consortium.

An arbiter awards 76-year-old Fred DePietro of Youngstown $32,160 on his claim that Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc., the huge New York investment banker, misrepresented a stock it sold him.

1976: About 500 members of the Structural Iron Workers Union begin returning to their jobs after reaching a new three-year agreement with the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, ending a strike that began May 1.

Public officials, clerics, labor representatives and family members of 200 workers set to lose their jobs are organizing protests in Warren and Youngstown against the closing of the Halsey-Taylor plant in Warren by its parent company, Household Finance Corp.

Dori Jones, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William B. Jones of 107 Gypsy Lane, is awarded a fellowship to teach English at Nanyang University in Singapore after she graduates June 8 from Princeton University.

1966: U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan announces a federal grant of $55,270 for the Youngstown Community Action Council to launch a new Head Start program for 300 children in Mahoning County.

Four girls from Sharon, Pa. – three 14-years-old and one 15 – are being held by Trumbull County sheriff’s deputies in the theft of three cars over the weekend.

Youngstown police and federal agents have been looking for Gregory Yarwick in his old Plymouth Street neighborhood claiming he was AWOL, while Yarwick has been in Vietnam since early April, even earning his Pfc. stripes and coming under fire from the Viet Cong, according to three letters his family received.

1941: Paul Wick is named chairman of the Youngstown Committee for United China Relief, to work with the national campaign to raise $5 million for use by seven affiliated societies.

William J. Welther, of Oakleigh Street, and Nevin B. Stover, West Evergreen Avenue, will graduate from Hamma Divinity School in Springfield, Ohio.

Youngstown city officials and councilmen get an aerial preview of the new Youngstown Airport and how a big airline is operated when they fly to Cleveland Airport as guests of the Chamber of Commerce on a United Air Lines “Mainliner.”