25 Years Ago

  It's April 1978. Bob Hope hosts the 50th Academy Awards show in Los Angeles. Best Picture goes to Annie Hall. Best Actor and Actress Oscars are given to Diane Keaton (Annie Hall) and Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl). Woody Allen wins for Best Director (Annie Hall). You Light Up My Life is chosen as Best Original Song, and John Williams' music for Star Wars wins for Best Original Score.

 CBS debuts a new five-week miniseries called Dallas on Sunday nights. The show, about the Ewings of Texas, receives poor reviews, but high ratings.

 Velcro is introduced to the US consumer.

 A copy of the Gutenberg Bible sells for $2 million.

 Gary Player wins the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
 President Carter decides to postpone production of the controversial neutron bomb (the N-bomb) which would kill people but minimize damage to property.

 John Wayne, 70, undergoes heart surgery in Boston to replace a mitral value with that of a pig.

 Will Geer, 76, best known for his role as Grandpa on The Waltons, dies in Los Angeles from respiratory failure.

 The US Senate approves President Carter's treaty to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.

 The first VW Rabbit built in America rolls off the assembly line in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. 

 Time, Inc. announces that it will start publishing Life magazine again in October. The magazine will cost $1.50.

 At a power plant in West Virginia, 51 construction workers are killed when a scaffold collapses inside a cooling tower.

 Afghan's President Mohammad Daud is shot and killed by rebel troops who capture the capital of Kabul. The military sets up a new government called the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

 Englebert Humperdink appears at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Tickets cost $7, $8, and $9.

 SUNY-Binghamton art professor and chairman of the Art History Department Stanley Ferber, 50, dies.

 The Victory Supermarket in Tioga Terrace is robbed by two armed men.

 Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan wins the Pulitzer Prize for his non-fiction book The Dragons of Eden.

 Arthur B. Stiles, 89, founder of the Owego Savings and Loan, dies. 

 Movies playing in local theaters include Coma, The Fury, The Goodbye Girl, Rabbit Test, House Calls, The Turning Point, The Betsy, Walt Disney's The Jungle Book, An Unmarried Woman, and Annie Hall.

 Friday night TV shows include Quark; The New Adventures of Wonder Woman; Washington Week in Review; Wall Street Week; CPO Sharkey; The Incredible Hulk; Quincy; Husbands, Wives, and Lovers; and Richie Brockleman, Private Eye.

 An and 11-ounce package of Eggo Waffles costs 59¢, and a package of 12 Fudgesicles costs 89¢.

 Happy Easter.