25 Years Ago - July 1975
by Beverly Brown

It's July 1975. Advice columnist Ann Landers, 57, and her husband, Jules Lederer, are divorcing after 36 years of marriage.

Senator Hubert H. Humphrey has no plans to run for president in 1976.

There's a garbage strike in New York City. Refuse piles up under the hot, summer sun.

Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe win at Wimbledom.

The world's largest volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, erupts after 25 years of dormancy. Thousands of people gather to watch the eruption.

In China, archaeologists announce the discovery of a three-acre burial mound with 6,000 life-size clay statues of warriors and horses.

The Bicentennial half dollar is released. The coin features Independence Hall on the reverse and President Kennedy's profile on the obverse.

President Ford announces that he will run for president in 1976.

Cher, 29, is seeking a divorce from her second husband, Greg Allman, 27, nine days their marriage in Las Vegas. Cher says they "made a mistake."

President Ford celebrates his 62nd birthday with a surprise party in the East Room and an evening cruise on the Potomac on the presidential yacht Sequoia.

A study by MIT predicts that in the future we could order our groceries by terminals connected to our TV sets.

Americans and Russians shake hands in space during the first international space mission. Apollo astronaut Thomas P. Stafford and Soviet cosmonaut Alexei A. Leonov greet each other and exchange national flags. The crews visit for more than four hours.

Ringo Starr, 35, divorces his wife, Maureen, of 10 years.

Christina Onassis, 24, weds Alexandros Andreadis, 30, son of a multimillionaire Greek shipowner. Stepmother Jackie Onassis attends the wedding.

The Apollo spacecraft returns to Earth with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The $230 million mission marks the end of the Apollo missions. The next space mission will be in about four years with the new shuttle rocket plane. The first planned flight in atmosphere will be in 1977, the first orbit test in 1979.

The Apollo astronauts predict that the next generation of spaceships will let women and men fly together.

Jimmy Hoffa, former president of the Teamsters International, is reported missing.

A memorial service is held at Sage Chapel at Cornell University for the late Rod Serling.

Tioga County offers to buy the old Central Elementary School on Main Street for $200,000.

The swimming pool at Owego's Marvin Park opens for the summer.

Albert Stearns, cofounder of Sall-Stearns, a men's clothing store in Binghamton, dies at age 75. Mr. Stearn, whose real name was Alec Streletsky, immigrated from Russia in 1918.

The owners of buildings on Front Street along the river in Owego meet to discuss renovations and plans to bring traffic back to the village. The group chooses the tradename Riverow.

Seven thousand people attend an Alice Cooper concert at the Veterans Memorial Arena. Cooper was banned from appearing there two years ago.

TV station WBNG replaces Bernard Fionte as news director. Larry Estape will take over as the evening news anchor.

The U.S. water-skiing qualifications are held at Spencer's Pond in Owego.

At SUNY-Binghamton, the new School of Advanced Technology is under construction. The three-story, $7 million building should be completed in fall '76.

Local theaters are showing The Four Musketeers, Young Frankenstein, The Happy Hooker, Jaws, The Devil's Rain, The Return of the Pink Panther, Love and Death, Cinderella, and Once is Not Enough.

Thursday night TV shows include The Waltons, Barney Miller, The Texas Wheelers, The Streets of San Francisco, and Harry O. The local PBS station's Thursday night shows include The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Evening at Pops, and A Family at War, an English drama about the Ashton family during World War II.

At the Hi-Way Fruit Market in Vestal, local sweet corn costs 89¢ per dozen and homegrown tomatoes are 59¢ per pound.