A Look Back: April 18

50 Years Ago

■Robert F. Ulm, Easthampton’s fire chief since 1944, last night submitted his resignation to the Board of Selectmen, to become effective April 20. Ulm said he would become fire chief in the town of Bedford.

■The Northampton City Council voted 6 to 3 last night not to provide funds to fluoridate the city’s water supply. The council’s action overrides an earlier order of the Northampton Board of Health, which approved fluoridation, and a 1973 city referendum in which voters endorsed fluoridation by 54 votes.

25 Years Ago

■A cross-section of the area’s religious communities will put a distinct mark this weekend on a spring ritual – celebrating the goodness of the Earth. On Sunday, communities of faith whose leaders belong to the Hampshire Interfaith Council will gather outside at Smith College for songs, remarks, dance and a collective art project.

■With the first anniversary of the stabbing death of a Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School student next month, a group of students, teachers and staff are working to improve the campus’s “peace garden.” The group, called the Smith Vocational Student Alliance, has held two fundraising events this month to purchase benches and trees for the garden, which is located between the school’s academic building and its administration offices.

10 Years Ago

■Jeff Good, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist devoted to community journalism, will join the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s parent company next month as executive editor, a new position responsible for editorial content at Newspapers of New England’s Pioneer Valley publications and digital products.

■The Westboro Baptist Church’s anti-gay protest at the University of Massachusetts came and went quickly and without incident Wednesday, while a rally supporting the campus’ gay community drew over 1,000 people. The two events were sparked by UMass sophomore Derrick Gordon becoming the nation’s first openly gay men’s college basketball player.