21 WFMJ archives / May 26,  1954 |  During a tour 71 years ago of the then-new Bell Telephone TV operations center on Southern Blvd. at LaBelle Ave., students from Woodrow Wilson High School received an explanation of the complicated relay system needed to handle dial telephone calls. 

May 25

2000: Olde Good Things, a New York architectural salvage company, begins work on the former McKelvey Department Store building in downtown Youngstown, removing ornate terra cotta panels for future reuse. 

Mahoning County Court Judge Theresa Dellick sentences Don Hanni III, a member of the Youngstown Board of Education, to 180 days in jail, with all but five days suspended. He pleaded guilty to refusing to provide a urine sample after being arrested for driving under the influence. 

Ernie Carlson, 69, died in the fiery crash of his prototype Carlson Criquet airplane in a cornfield just beyond the grassy runway of Carlson Aircraft Inc. near East Liverpool. Carlson designed and built small airplanes, which he sold as kits. 

1985: Labor Attorney Staughton Lynd, representing four former employees of Schwebel Baking Co., files suit against the bakery and the employees' union, claiming the company improperly fired them and the union failed to represent their interests. He requests records covering 100 firings going back 10 years. 

Pope John Paul 11  elevates 28 men to cardinal, including Americans John J. O'Connor of New York and Bernard Law of Boston.

Following the explosion of an illegal fireworks plant in Beaver Township, some residents are heeding warnings about the danger of poorly made, illicit explosives and are turning them in. 

1975: The line-up of performers coming to Warren for the 1975 season of the Kenley Players includes Mickey Rooney, Sandy Duncan, Anne Miller, Lucie Arnaz, Paul Lynde, Noel Harrison, Karen Valentine, Joey Heatherton, Jack Jones, and Roberta Peters. 

Capital-hungry steel firms must raise $3 billion to $3.5 billion in the next decade to upgrade their Youngstown district mills. 

The Youngstown Diocesan Pastoral Council recommends that divorced and remarried Catholics be permitted to receive communion under some circumstances. 

1950: Gov. Frank J. Lausche and state highway department officials dedicate Youngstown's new $2 million Spring Commons Bridge. 

Defective wiring is blamed for a $150,000 fire that destroyed the American Theater in East Liverpool and forced 200 movie-watchers to flee.