50 Years Ago

■Spaghetti, macaroni, chicken and seafood topped the Sunday dinner menus for thousands of Americans on the opening day of a weeklong meat boycott protesting high prices. Most meat markets were closed on Sunday, so it was hard to judge whether housewives were crossing beef, lamb and pork off their shopping lists.

■Miss Mary Jane O’Sullivan, an 18-year-old University of Massachusetts freshman, was crowned the first Miss Hampshire County, Saturday night at Northampton High School. She was chosen from a field of 10 contestants.

25 Years Ago

■Mayor Mary L. Ford has chosen Brian P. Duggan, 34, to lead the Northampton Fire Department, which she has described as antiquated and divisive. Duggan will take over on or after May 17. He immediately will face the task of rebuilding an institution that has been heavily criticized both by Ford and a consultant the city hired.

■The finalists for the position of Northampton High School principal include a familiar face. Frank E. Tudryn Jr., now interim principal at the high school and a finalist in the previous, unsuccessful search to fill the post, is again on the short list for the job, said Superintendent Bruce Willard.

10 Years Ago

■Easthampton’s efforts to promote the cultural prominence of Cottage Street are paying off. The thoroughfare is now on the list of state-designated cultural districts. The city applied for the designation from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in January and the council voted unanimously last week to make Easthampton’s proposed district the 16th in the state.

■Mayor David J. Narkewicz said he has received “numerous inquiries” about a YouTube video that alleges police misconduct during a Sunday morning arrest. The five-minute video, titled “Northampton Massachusetts Police Brutality,” had been viewed some 35,000 times by the end of the day Tuesday and sparked a flurry of online comments.

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