It's May 1974. New York's mandatory odd-even gas program ends.

A Maryland Court of Appeals disbars former Vice-President Spiro Agnew.

Expo '74 opens in Spokane.

The House Judiciary Committee begins closed formal hearings to determine whether to recommend that the full House impeach Nixon.

In Los Angeles, a TV station carries a live broadcast of a one-hour shoot-out between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army. Six members of the SLA are killed. Patty Hearst is not among them.

India detonates a nuclear bomb underground, becoming the sixth nation to have nuclear power.

Duke Ellington, 75, dies of lung cancer in New York City.

At the Emmys, Alan Alda and Mary Tyler Moore win for best actors in a comedy. Upstairs, Downstairs wins for best drama.

President Nixon agrees to turn over 1,000 pages of edited Watergate transcripts. The House Judiciary Committee warns Nixon that his refusal to hand over the actual tapes might constitute a ground for impeachment.

The Ti-Ahwaga Community Players present The Fourposter.

Steve Rieg of Owego is named 1974 Boy of the Year at the Tioga County Boys' Club's 10th annual awards dinner.

Buy a 16-ounce glass of Pepsi at Carroll's for 39 and keep the Looney Tunes glass featuring Tweety, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, or Porky Pig.

It's a bike boom. More people are buying bicycles and prices have risen 20% - the average price of a good 10-speed bicycle is now $135.

Local bankers and businessmen report that pennies are in short supply.

BCC tuition will increase to $650 in September.

If you ever thought your "one" vote didn't matter... The Owego-Apalachin school district's proposed $7,200,000 budget is rejected by a single vote! (148 to 147). This is the first defeat in the district's 20-year history. School officials are stunned.

Owego's new bridge at Exit 65 is dedicated. Senator Warren Anderson breaks a bottle of New York champagne against the bridge and officially christens it the "Hiawatha Bridge." (Photos below.)

At the Tioga County Fairgrounds, country singer Jeannie C. Riley performs two shows at Country Western Day sponsored by the Deputy Sheriff's Association.




Magnetic Laboratories plans to build a light manufacturing facility on East Main Street in Apalachin.

Doctors' insurance premiums against malpractice will increase 93.5% due to the increase in the number of malpractice suits and the higher awards in court. Locally, general practitioners pay about $500 per year for malpractice insurance. In July, that will increase to almost $1,000. Specialists, who currently pay $5,000 per year, will see their premiums rise to about $9,000.

Hickories Park opens for the season. For the first time in two years, there will be no vehicle entrance fees. The town board establishes a 30-day limit on use of camping spaces in order to discourage people from living in the park during the summer. The camping spaces cost $2.50 per day.

Merchants in the Village of Owego want police to patrol the business district on foot between 3:00 pm and midnight in order to crack down on loitering teenagers who disturb shoppers with vulgar language, litter the sidewalks and streets, engage in horseplay, break and vandalize windows, and lounge on shoppers' cars.

Plans for "Emerald Heights," a multi-million dollar residential and recreational development on an old potato farm in Richford, have been postponed due to high interest rates. A group of New Jersey developers have plans to build roads, a golf course, water and sewer facilities, trailer sites, summer and vacation houses, and provide a site for a small shopping center and light industries.

There's a tennis boom in Broome. The Binghamton Tennis Center on South Mountain is transforming their plans for two indoor tennis courts into a complete family recreational center which will include 10 outdoor courts, four indoor courts, a swimming pool, and picnic area.

First City offers to pay $1.05 for a roll of 100 pennies.

Top tunes are The Loco-Motion by Grand Funk, The Streak by Ray Stevens, Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me by Gladys Knight and the Pips, Dancing Machine by Jackson 5, and The Entertainer by Marvin Hamlisch.

Thursday night TV shows include The Waltons, Kung Fu, the Flip Wilson Show, Ironside, and the Streets of San Francisco.

Movies at local theaters include The Three Musketeers, Walking Tall, Sleeper, and The Poseidon Adventure, and Paul Newman in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.