YEARS AGO FOR MAY 15

Today is Tuesday, May 15, the 135th day of 2018. There are 230 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: Virginia authorizes its delegation to the Continental Congress to support independence from Britain.

1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs an act establishing the Department of Agriculture.

1918: U.S. airmail service begins.

1928: The Walt Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse debuts in the silent animated short “Plane Crazy.”

1948: Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel is attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

1968: Two days of tornado outbreaks begin in 10 Midwestern and Southern states; twisters are blamed for 72 deaths, including 45 in Arkansas and 18 in Iowa.

1972: Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace is shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for president in Laurel, Md., by Arthur H. Bremer, who served 35 years for attempted murder.

2013: Under mounting pressure, President Barack Obama releases a trove of documents related to the Benghazi attack.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: South High, Youngstown’s oldest high school that will be closed in June, has its last prom at the Maronite Center.

Two Mahoning County commissioners suggest that the Democratic Party advertise the job of county coroner and seek recommendations from the medical community before appointing a replacement for Dr. Nathan D. Belinky, who resigned after pleading guilty to 19 drug charges in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Twenty-four House members, including U. S. Reps. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ron Klink, D-Pa., announce formation of the Congressional Anti-NAFTA Caucus, vowing to defeat the proposed trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico. U.S. Rep. James Traficant, a sharp opponent of the treaty, has yet to join the caucus.

1978: For the second time in less than two months, vandals break into Salem High School. They broke into the office, looking for money and ransacked the kitchen and teachers’ lounge.

Lt. Col. Archibald Roberts, national director of the Committee to Restore the Constitution, tells a crowd at the Trumbull Branch of Kent State University that a criminal element financed by David and Nelson Rockefeller is trying to program Americans to accept socialism and to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.

Eight Girl Scouts from Troop 366 at Tabernacle United Presbyterian Church will receive Girl Scouting’s highest award, First Class: Claire DeLuco, Rochelle Filban, Sally Williams, Melissa Smith, Debbie Harris, Linda Lesch, Theresa Potts and Patricia Antal.

1968: Dr. Charles F. Bonser, an economic planner, tells business leaders at the annual meeting of the Downtown Board of Trade that downtown Youngstown is in decline and “a program is necessary to preserve and restore the Youngstown community.”

Mrs. Edna Lehman, Leetonia, is one of three people killed when an auto ran off the Pennsylvania Turnpike during a heavy storm and tumbled down an embankment.

1943: Three teenage boys are sentenced by Juvenile Court Judge Henry P. Beckenbach to indeterminate sentences at the Mansfield Reformatory or the Boys Industrial School at Lancaster for an evening of crime during which they kidnapped and robbed a doctor, stole his car and then fatally injured two pedestrians while being chased by Youngstown police. A 19-year-old faces murder charges.

George L. Oles resumes the sale and baking of bread and the sale of lard, canned tomatoes and prunes after a month’s suspension under orders of OPA for violating ceiling prices.